


The Ocean's Deep

by siarc_a_botel



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Declarations Of Love, Deep Blue Sea AU, Drama, Drunk idiots, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Hints of humor, M/M, Married Speirton, Mentions of Drowning, Sacrifice, Secret Crush, Sharks, Some OOC, Swearing, Webgott hate each other, lots of death, or do they, shark attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2019-10-12 23:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17477114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siarc_a_botel/pseuds/siarc_a_botel
Summary: At a research facility in the middle of the ocean, a team work to gather brain tissue from sharks that have had their DNA altered, hoping to find a cure to the Alzheimer's Disease. When the backer of the research sends in Dick Winters to oversee the experiments, one trial starts going wrong, and the workers must fight for their lives to escape a flooding facility, as well as a group of flesh-eating sharks.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!  
> So I started this one a while ago, and had a bit of fun writing it, it's halfway done but I'm getting slow so might not update very frequently. I actually have a shark phobia (Webster's helped alot with it :P) and was told by someone to write about sharks to help with it, so here I am. 
> 
> This is based off the movie Deep Blue Sea, which gives me freaking nightmares, but I tried to remember some stuff that happens and also added my own scenes and what not. There WILL be LOTS of death, and my God it kills me to kill off so many beloved characters but I can't have everyone living, I so sorry :(
> 
> *All characters are based off the HBO series Band of Brothers and not the real life people!*

Harry Welsh had a funny feeling that today was not going to be a good day. In fact, he knew it wouldn’t. From the moment he woke up that morning he was already dreading getting dressed, and walking out onto the boat that would take him to land, and getting picked up by some fancy car that had a fancy driver with a fancy uniform. Entering the huge building in the middle of the city didn’t exactly ease his nerves either, since waiting on the top floor was a rich, arrogant snob who he had a slight dislike towards.

Walking through the foyer towards the front desk, Welsh glanced around the clean, white walls and scoffed at the oversized portrait of the man himself that took charge of the building, Herbert Sobel. After signing in with the receptionist, who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else but there, Welsh made his way through the security gates, and up to the top floor through the elevators. As he stepped out, he was greeted by a tall red head, a grin plastered on his face.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Welsh laughed joyfully, practically running out to hug the chuckling man in front of him. “If it isn’t Richard Winters.”

“Good to see you, Harry.” Winters smiled happily, patting the man’s arm as they separated. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah it has,” Welsh grinned. “Six months at most.”

“Sorry I missed you at the other meetings,” Winters said as he gestured for the other man to follow him. “The company’s been busy with the new projects.”

Welsh snorted. “More projects for Sobel to get his hands on, huh?”

“You know Sobel,” Winters replied, opening a door that lead them down a long hallway. “He picks the projects he thinks he’ll get the most money from.”

“Hm,” Welsh hummed. “Thankfully you’re the one handling my little project.”

Winters chuckled quietly. “That’s because I have faith in you, Harry. I know your research is for doing good.”

Welsh mumbled, “Don’t think Sobel will agree after what happened the other day.”

Winters stopped then, just a few feet away from Sobel’s office door. The corporate executive turned to the smaller man, and talked in a hushed voice.

“Look, Harry,” he began. “What happened the other day, I’ll admit, hasn’t gone down well with the bosses around here, especially not Sink, but don’t worry, I’ll do everything I can to make sure you get another chance and don’t you give up, alright?”

Welsh nodded, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “You always were a ray of sunshine, eh Dick?”

Winters just shook his head with a laugh, before he knocked on Sobel’s door.

 

“HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?”

Welsh flinched as Sobel’s voice grew louder and higher pitched with each word, he looked over at Winters who seemed just as uncomfortable as he was.

“How does this happen, huh?” Sobel asked annoyed, slamming a newspaper down on his desk, where Welsh read the headline ‘Test Shark Escapes Underwater Labs’. “One of your damn sharks _escaped_ , and you expect me to back up your bloody project after that? I’m wasting my money on a failure!”

Welsh wanted to roll his eyes and scream at the idiot standing in front of him. “Mr. Sobel, I’ll admit there has been some problems at the facility, but something like this has never been attempted before!”

“I don’t care!” Sobel huffed, just like a small child having a tantrum. “Some teenagers almost died and I would have been in the shit!”

“Sir,” Winters cut in. “With all due respect, those kids were fine. Harry has the best team working for him, they followed the sharks every move and got it back to the facility within minutes.”

Sobel snorted. “And?” he crossed his arms over his chest, challenging the red head. “You expect me to change my mind just because his team know how to babysit those… _things_?”

“Mr. Sobel,” Winters continued, seeing Welsh getting edgy beside him. “Like Harry said, what they’re doing there has never been done before, and if they succeed it would help so many people,” he saw that Sobel was getting bored with his speech, so he added, “And the money the project would raise would be ten times the amount or more of what we payed out towards it.”

That got Sobel’s attention, and Winters glanced over at Welsh, egging him on to continue.

“He’s right,” Welsh took over. “The results would be incredible. We’re so close to reactivating the dormant human brain cells, and think of what we could do for all those men and women out there suffering from Alzheimers.”

Sobel hummed in response. “Isn’t there some sort of hospital for that?”

Welsh wanted to punch his lights out, but continued. “You’ve obviously never known anyone with Alzheimers, Mr. Sobel. But I can tell you it’s the worst feeling in the world having to watch someone you love fade away right in front of you.” He said, seeing Sobel fidget uncomfortably. “By the end my father would constantly ask why my mother wasn’t at home, and time and time again I’d have to remind him that she was gone, that she was dead.”

“We could end all that, Sobel.” Winters added. “Harry’s project can end all those men and women’s suffering with just one pill.”

“Give me until Monday, forty eight hours” Welsh said, standing his ground as Sobel looked like he was about to toss them out and take a nap on his desk. “I’ll give you results that will sky rocket your stock price, or I’ll pack it all up myself and be done with it.”

Sobel looked from Welsh to Winters, that last line of Welsh’s embedded in his mind. Winters could practically see the dollar signs in his eyes as he looked out the window, tapping his chin like he was in deep, deep thought.

Then Sobel droned, and sat back down. “Alright, Mr. Welsh. Forty eight hours, and in that forty eight hours I want you, Winters, to go down to that facility and check on the progress. I want to know just how close you are to getting this done.”

Winters and Welsh both nodded in agreement. Their forty eight hours had begun.


	2. The Underwater Lair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winters and Welsh arrive at the compound, where Winters gets to meet the team.

“So, how much do you think Sobel actually cares about my project?”

Welsh shared a grin with Winters who was sitting next to him in the amphibious aircraft, as he pulled on the gearstick, pushing the transporter forward even faster.

“I’d say zero percent,” Winters said to him. “All he sees in this is the dollar signs, did you see his face when we mentioned the possible outcome?”

Welsh laughed loudly, adjusting his headphones. “You know what, once I get this thing up and running, I hope Sink decides to fire Sobel’s ass. Maybe then he can put you in charge!”

Winters chuckled. “Me? I don’t think I’m cut out for the job, Harry.”

“You kidding? You’d be great at running things. You would think of the projects and businesses themselves, not how much money the company would make.”

“I’m fine where I am, Harry. Much less hassle, much less stress.”

Welsh scoffed, bringing the plane lower in the sky, the sea calm and steady meters below. “Well, I still think you’d be good for that company, and I know Sink sees it in you too.”

Winters didn’t say anything more about it, he kept silent the rest of the way, looking out onto the swaying waves underneath them, watching as the seagulls dove into the water or floated on top. It didn’t take long for the plane to reach its destination, a stone building with piers and metal gates surrounding the area just yards in front.

“There she blows.” Welsh said over the speakers. “Our home from home.”

“It’s smaller than I imagined.” Winters said.

Welsh just laughed quietly. “That’s just above water, Dick. It’s practically a maze underneath.”

“How far down does it reach?”

“Far enough.” Welsh grinned, as they descended towards the water. “You’re going to love it here, Dick. Seriously, this is the place that’s going to make a miracle happen.”

Winters smiled at the other man, believing in his determination and skills. It had been months now since the project had begun, they’d gotten so much done already and they were closer than they could have imagined at getting the results they wanted. Winters knew Welsh and his team could do it from the start, and he wasn’t going to lose his faith.

“Here we are!” Welsh hollered as the plane landed with a big bump, gliding across the water and coming to a halt beside one of the long piers. “Woo, might need to work on that landing.”

“Just a bit of practice maybe.” Winters chuckled, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Once outside, Winters slung his overnight backpack over his shoulders and slammed the plane’s door shut, whilst glancing around the area. He noticed the plane was positioned next to a pier that was outside of the metal gates surrounding the place, and inside the pier wound around like the shape of a rectangle, one surface lead you to the brick tower that sat in the middle, one to the big shed on the right, and another to the decking on the left. On both sides of the tower were the gigantic pools of the ocean.

“Impressive huh?” Welsh said as he noticed Winters staring. “This place was built during World War two, used for ships and what not, I don’t know, something like that, could ask Webster he’s the smarty pants around here…” he mumbled on, waving a hand for Winters to follow him.

Welsh led him over to the locked gate at the front, punching in a code on the number pad that deactivated it with a click, and they went inside the caged in base, making sure the gate was shut behind them.

“Where are they going?” Winters asked, as he noticed a large boat not far away, around twenty people climbing on board in excitement.

“Oh,” Welsh shook it off. “That’s just some of the other crew we swap shifts with, and some of the others are heading home, they’re getting a week off.”

“Don’t you need them for the project?”

“Nah,” Welsh shrugged. “Most of them are volunteers or part timers. They basically help with the extractions, work on the data and stuff, I’ll be fine by myself. We’ve got everyone we really need staying on.”

Winters nodded in understanding as Welsh took him along the right side of the pier, pointing out that the titanium gates ran all the way around and right down onto the bottom of the ocean, keeping in the sharks that lived there. Welsh stopped in the middle of the pier then, explaining about the security of the place from a sign stuck on the fence just as another red head came waltzing up to them.

“Hey Harry!”

Welsh grinned, bringing the man in for a hug. “Good to see you haven’t quit on us yet, Malark.”

The other man chuckled. “One more story about broccoli and cheese being the best meal ever from Skip, and I’m out of here.”

Welsh laughed, patting him hard on the shoulder. “Hey, I’d like to introduce you to Sobel’s best friend,” he began, earning a roll of the eyes from Winters. “This is Dick Winters.”

“Oh, Mr. Winters,” red head perked up, reaching out to shake the other’s hand. “I’m Don Malarkey engineer, it’s good to finally meet you, Harry’s told us all about your help in getting this project on its feet.”

“You too,” Winters said. “Anything for an old friend. Besides, Harry’s mum would probably kill me if I didn’t get Harry away from his house for a while.”

Malarkey laughed as Welsh snorted, pouting like a little child. “Mum has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Malarkey grinned cheekily.

“I’ll have you know, I am a great son and…”

As Welsh continued to blab on about being the greatest son that ever lived and the top hundred things he did for his parents, Winters’s eye caught movement from the other side of the long pool, his eyes almost popped out of his head at what he saw. Two men were swinging ropes around like a couple of loons as they tried, very hard, to keep an extremely big shark from wiggling around in the harness that the ropes were attached to. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the enormous creature, its glistening, dark skin, to its black, round eyes, to the razor sharp teeth that were jutting out of its closed mouth.

“She’s a beauty ain’t she? Twelve feet. She’s one of the normals, test sharks are in the other pen.” Malarkey cut him out of his stupor, himself and Welsh watching the two men with him. “That’s Muck and Penkala, they usually work up in the tower keeping an eye on the weather and sending out important data, but sometimes they help Webster when he needs some extra hands.”

“Who’s Webster?” Winters asked, turning to a grinning Welsh and Malarkey.

“That’s Webster.” Welsh answered, pointing a finger down into the water, right below the shark.

Winters had to do a double take. A man who looked much younger than himself was keeping afloat in the water, with just a pair of shorts and nothing more, he spoke to Muck and Penkala as they kept the animal steady.

“What do you think’s wrong with her, Web?” Much shouted down to the swimmer.

“There’s something stuck in her mouth.” Webster answered, squinting to get a good look. “Looks like a number plate.”

Penkala laughed in disbelief. “How’d she get that all the way out here?”

“You know people,” Webster huffed, starting to swim away. “They dump whatever shit they want into the ocean.”

“Shall we drop her in?” Muck called out to him as he dove underwater.

Winters watched as seconds later Webster popped to the surface right on the other side of the pool to the shark, he didn’t look as if he was going to get out. Webster stuck his thumb in the air, signalling to Muck and Penkala, who took a step back, and at the same time they let go of the ropes, and Muck pulled a lever beside him that had the shark dropping with a great splash into the water.

“Why isn’t he getting out?” Winters barely managed to let out, as he watched Webster take a deep breath and dive back under the shallows.

Welsh and Malarkey didn’t answer, they didn’t look affected by what was going on at all. So Winters observed, feeling his heartbeat gradually speeding up as Webster literally swam right towards the shark, that was swimming in full speed straight for him. As they grew closer and closer Winters wanted to look away but found that he couldn’t, Webster had suddenly stopped and was floating in the middle of the ocean as a ginormous, wild shark zipped towards him like a bullet aiming for the target.

As he stayed in his position and turned around, the shark opened its wide jaws and went straight for him. Just as the creature got close enough to snap its jaws, Webster used both hands to shove its nose down, pushing himself up and over the shark’s body that continued to swim as fast as lightening. Webster quickly grabbed a hold of its back fin, clinging on as tight as he could whilst being dragged through the water. Being very alert, Webster extended his hand around to the shark’s mouth, just about seeing the glint of a number plate almost hanging out from between the crooked teeth. Seizing the end of the metal, Webster gave it a good yank and had it free within seconds.

Letting go of the animal, Webster hurriedly swam for the surface and made his way over to where Muck and Penkala were cheering at his show. Welsh and Malarkey joined in as Webster threw the number plate onto the deck, and pulled himself onto dry land, his friends patting him on the back. He took a seat on the nearest box he could find to take a breather, waving back at Welsh who was shouting across the pier.

“You bloody show off!”

Webster grinned, standing up to take a bow. Welsh and Malarkey laughed as they started walking towards the tower, Welsh nudging Winters to follow, who was still in awe at what he’d just witnessed.

“You’ll get used to Webster pulling that kind of shit.” Welsh said as he noticed Winters staring at the water.

“How does he do that?” Winters asked as they approached the thick, tall door that led them into an elevator.

“He’s a shark expert, marine biologist.” Welsh answered, pinning in the code for the door to open.

“He’s been swimming with sharks since he was a kid, knows them better than anyone.” Malarkey added in, before Welsh handed him a box from his own bag and he heard Muck and Penkala call his name. “Right, I’d better go sort those two out, need me to fix something…again.”

“Of course.” Welsh chuckled, getting into the elevator.

“Great to meet you, Mr. Winters.”

“You too, you can call me Dick.” Winters shook his hand again, and Malarkey jogged off to meet up with his friends. “Well, that was an interesting start.” He said as the doors closed, and they descended lower into the depths.

Welsh just laughed in amusement, used to seeing people’s reactions. “If you think that’s nuts, you should have seen him when he was drunk, almost got his arm chopped off.”

Winter’s eyes widened in shock, the image in itself making him uneasy. But Welsh just grinned from ear to ear and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Only joking, don’t think any of us would be stupid enough to get drunk and go swimming with the fishes.” He smiled widely.

Winters shook his head in incredulity, as the elevator jerked and came to an abrupt halt. Welsh swung the door open and readjusted his bag, wondering whether to turn left or right before he decided on the latter.

“Right,” he told Winters as he walked out. “I’ll take you to your room on level one so you can dump your bag, I’ll give you a quick tour of this floor, and take you down to the next floor to meet the rest of the team.”

Winters nodded, already looking forward to meeting the men.

 

_____________________________________  
  
It took less than an hour for Welsh to show him the entire floor, there were a few bedrooms that had two to four beds, a couple of rooms that were turned into offices, and a bathroom that could fit a couple of sharks in. After that Welsh took him straight back to the elevator, and they once again plunged further towards the bottom of the sea.

The door opened to reveal a spacious hallway, big enough to be its own room. There were two doors on both ends of the room, and one bigger one in the middle in line with the elevator. Welsh stepped out, Winters closely following, and headed straight for the door opposite them. The entrance had a locking wheel that kept the door shut tight, and with a bit of a struggle Welsh eventually got it unstuck and gave it a turn, until there came a loud clunk and it swung inwards. Welsh gestured them inside, onto a steel balcony that overlooked the entire area.

“And here is where all the magic happens!” Welsh declared, extending his arms out to show off the place. “Welcome to the fun house.”

They’d walked into a huge room, which looked like a cross between a science lab and swimming bathes. Welsh led Winters onto some metal stairs that slopped down into the main space, where a bunch of computers and electronic devices sat on both sides, maps and plans dotting the walls and a line of small televisions showing security footage were along the front of the room.

Taking up the dead centre of the area was a pool, big enough to fit a thirty foot fish, and right at the front of the hall was a ginormous, dense window, reaching from one side of the wall to the other. It was unnerving to look through the clear glass and out into the deep, unending ocean, so calm and so dark.

Winters couldn’t help but stare at it, wondering if the sharks could be off in the distance just watching them silently.

“Spooky, ain’t it?” Welsh said, as if reading his mind. “Even scarier when the sharks swim by.”

“Don’t think I’d want to witness that.” Winters chuckled as Welsh grinned in amusement.

“Well, come on then.” Welsh clapped his hands together, starting to descend the steps. “Come meet the rest of the gang.”

Winters followed him down the stairs, their feet clinking against the metal, and gaining everyone in the room’s attention from the echoing noise.

“Hey, Welshy!” A small, dark eyed man called over from one of the computers, waving enthusiastically.

“Afternoon, Luz.” He answered, motioning for Winters to follow him over to stand next to the man named Luz. “Can I have everyone’s attention for a second?”

The employees stopped what they were doing, all eyes on Welsh and Winters, who felt a little nervy being the centre of attention.

“I’d like to introduce you guys,” Welsh began. “This is my good friend Dick Winters, the executive of our financial backers.”

All of a sudden everyone cheered and whistled, shouting out their welcome. Winters wasn’t expecting such a lively bunch, laughing at their excitement. He gave them all a quick wave.

“Right,” Welsh said, waving them all off to go back to what they were doing. “I’ll introduce you to everyone so you don’t get confused and start making up weird nicknames for them.”

“We already have weird nicknames, Curly fries.” The man who had his feet in Luz’s lap said.

Welsh grunted. “This here is Joe Toye,” he gestured. “One of our security guys, likes watching CCTV all day, keeps the pirates at bay. You probably heard of the few attempted break ins.”

Winters nodded, shaking Toye’s hand at the same time. “Does it happen often?”

“Nah,” Toye shrugged. “Now and again we’ll get some fishermen snooping around, and some idiots thinking they can get in and nab the equipment. Nothing major.”

“He’s only here as eye candy.” Luz butted in with a big, bright grin, as Toye rolled his eyes beside him. “I’m George Luz, pleased to meet ya.” He said, sticking out his hand for Winters to take.

“Pleased to meet you too.”

“He’s our expert IT guy and our own personal comedian,” Welsh informed him. “We’d be clueless about all this doolally, and bored as hell without him. His impression of Sobel is uncanny.”

Luz nodded, putting on his serious face and mimicking Sobel’s voice. “Everyone needs a Luz.”

Toye snorted. “No they don’t, you suck.”

Luz smirked, grasping onto the perfect opportunity. “Yes I do, and I’m pretty good at it. You would know.”

Toye gave him a poke in the rib with his foot, grinning at the smaller man.

“Oh God,” Welsh groaned, pushing Winters away. “Not in front of the guest!”

Winters just laughed, hearing the other two laugh along as he was being shoved across the room to the next group of men that were sitting by the security feeds.

“Are they an item?” Winters asked as he glanced back at the pair, smiling as Toye grabbed Luz by the neck and messed up his hair.

“Who, Luz and Toye?” Welsh hummed. “Nah, they’re friends with benefits as they say, but we all think there’s more to it.”

Winters nodded in understanding. They approached the three men hanging out by the screens, one with dark hair and pale skin who was snooping through a first aid box, and a red head and an angry looking Italian who were currently having a debate on which cheese went best with pizza.

“I’m telling ya, it’s Mozzarella!” Red head squeaked in a thick Philadelphian accent.

“You’re talking shit, Babe,” the other guy replied, his accent identical. “American cheese is the only cheese that should be on a pizza.”

“It’s plain and boring.”

“Your taste buds not working?”

“I prefer cheddar myself.” Welsh stepped in, earning a disgusted look from the arguing Philadelphians, and a slight smirk from the third man.

“Amateur.” Red head scoffed.

Welsh grinned. “Anyway, guys, this is Dick. Dick, this is Bill Guarnere our other engineer. Babe Heffron, our reporter, writes about all the shit that goes on and sends it to whoever the fuck cares.” Winters chuckled as Heffron rolled his eyes. “And the sensible one right here is our very own medic, Eugene Roe.”

“How’s it going?” Guarnere greeted, shaking Winters’s hand firmly.

Heffron sent him a cheerful wave as Winters shook the medic’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you.” Roe said.

“Right,” Welsh swiftly moved on, wanting to get introductions done at a fast pace. “Next!”

Winters was shuffled over to the next two men, one was laying back next to the pool as if he were sunbathing on holiday, arms under his head and knees bent, and the other man sitting beside him was none other than Webster. The shark tamer, hair still wet and shorts replaced with a wetsuit, was flipping through some papers on a clipboard, scribbling notes in wherever possible.

“Christ, Joe, will you shut up!” Webster grumbled to the singing man close to him. “You’re voice is like a hyena!”

“Hey, fuck you! I’m the next Ricky Martin!” The guy, Joe, countered.

Webster snorted. “You wish.”

“You just watch, Web. I’ll be famous one day.”

“Famous for your mugshot all over New York.”

“Fuckface.”

“Dickhead.”

“Asswipe.”

“Prick.”

“And this,” Welsh hollered loud enough to cut across the two bickering men, who turned their full attention on the scientist, “this lazy git on the floor is our chef, Joe Liebgott, and his wife here,” (Liebgott laughed as the other glared Welsh’s way), “is David Webster, our shark biologist, who of course you saw having a party with one of the sharks earlier.”

Liebgott let out a short laugh. “He’d live with the damn things if he could.”

Webster whacked him on the arm, hard. “Shut it, asshole.” He then turned to an amused Winters. “Welcome to the facility, Mr. Winters.”

“Thanks,” Winters smiled. “Please, call me Dick, and that was quite an impressive thing you did earlier, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

They shared a handshake, and Webster smiled, pleased at the compliment. “Thank you, I’ve been swimming with sharks since I could walk.”

Liebgott snorted. “Why don’t you just marry them.”

Webster glared at the other man, smacking him on the closest part of him he could find with the back of his clipboard, which turned out to be his forehead.

“Ow! You fucker!” Liebgott hissed.

“Serves you right.”

 Welsh decided that that was their queue to leave and once again he was whisking Winters away to the last group of people who were hiding in the corner of the room, next to the mini kitchen and resting area. The first thing Winters noticed wasn’t the two men sat in some comfy chairs having a quiet talk, but another man, balled up in his own seat with his face hidden in his arms.

“Is he alright?” Winters asked Welsh, before he could introduce him.

“Yeah,” Welsh chuckled as the other two men noticed them and stood. “He didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Winters bobbed his head, as Welsh came up to the remaining men, giving them each a hug. “Before I introduce you to Mr. Sleepy head over there,” he said. “These are my good friends, Dr. Carwood Lipton, the other awesome researcher who’s helping me with the project, and his husband Ron Speirs, head of security and kick ass policeman when he’s not fighting off pirates over here.”

“It’s great to finally meet you.” Lipton stepped forward, shaking Winters’s hand heartily. “Harry’s told us a lot about you during schools days.”

Winters laughed, not surprised in the least. “Good stories I hope.” He said, shaking Speirs’s hand.

“Well, partly.” Speirs said with a smirk. “It’s good to have you here.”

“Although we wish it were under better circumstances.” Lipton added with a frown.

“Yeah,” Welsh sighed. “Let’s not get into that mess.”

They all agreed. As Welsh started telling the couple about Winters’s job in the facility for the next few crucial hours, the executive couldn’t help but move his gaze back over to the sleeping man on the comfortable looking chair. He hadn’t budged an inch since they’d walked over, and he wasn’t even making a noise, he must have been seriously tired or perhaps knocked out.

“Oh,” Welsh noticed Winters staring at the man, and strolled on over to him. “What about this moron over here.”

“You don’t have to wake him,” Winters quickly stopped Welsh before he made a move to shake him. “I’m sure I can meet him another time.”

“He’s been sleeping there for two hours now,” Speirs said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m pretty sure he won’t get to sleep tonight if he carries on.”

“That settles it then.” Welsh said, leaning across the sleeping man and giving him a good shake on the shoulders. “Rise and shine sleeping beauty.”

It didn’t take long for the man to wake, he bolted upright like a jack in the box, eyes wide in surprise and hair all over the place. The others laughed at his deer in the headlights look, as he began rubbing at his eyes tiredly, letting out a groan.

“You alright there, Nix?” Lipton asked, feeling sorry for the man.

The guy, Nix, frowned, looking up at Welsh completely unamused at being woken up. “I would be if it wasn’t for this asshat.”

Welsh feigned a gasp. “This is what I get for being a good friend.” he dodged a weak punch to the arm from his heavy-eyed friend. “And besides, I want to introduce you to someone.”

“You’ve already introduced me to your cat fifty times, Harry.”

Speirs and Lipton laughed, along with Winters who also knew just what he was going on about. Welsh had probably mentioned his new cat at least twenty times before arriving.

“Very funny.” Welsh deadpanned. “I’m talking about Dick over there.” He pointed a finger Winters’s way, and the brunette’s gaze landed on him, suddenly Winters felt his cheeks heat up for some reason. “Remember my friend I was telling you about, who’s the executive coming to visit?”

The guy in the chair stared. “You’re Dick Winters?”

“Yes,” Winters said with a smile. “That’s me.”

He blinked slowly, as if taking in the information before he said, “Harry never mentioned you’d be so good looking.”

Winters’s blush turned an even deeper shade of red, as Welsh and the other two began laughing at the man’s bluntness. Of course, they all knew just how honest the younger man could be, especially when he’d just woken up in a daze.

“Well,” Welsh chuckled, nudging Winters. “You can always count on Nix to never tell a lie.”

“What’s the point in lying when the truth is so much more fun.” Said man grinned as he stood up, strolling over to Winters and sticking out his hand. “Lewis Nixon, pleasure to meet you, Dick.”

“You too,” Winters shook his hand, sharing a smile with the shorter man. “What is it you do? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Not at all,” Nixon shrugged. “I’m a veterinarian, Webster’s been my best buddy since we were kids, asked me to join the gang to make sure none of his shark children died of pneumonia or something.”

“I heard that!” Webster called from across the room.

Nixon just sent him a grin. “Very different to working with cats and dogs, that’s for sure.”

“I bet.” Winters chuckled, as Welsh walked over to the kettle and clicked it on. “Do you all work full time here?”

“Not all of us.” Lipton answered, as Speirs and Nixon began helping Welsh out with the ten thousand mugs on the counter. “Ron comes in a couple of days a week to help out Toye with the security system, I work four days here and others at home, everyone else works part time when they’re needed.”

“And then there’s Harry and Webster who practically live here.” Speirs added.

“Hey now,” Welsh spoke up, pouring the teas and coffees. “Someone’s got to babysit Webster, he can’t stay here all alone.”

Nixon hummed in agreement. “We’d probably turn up one day and he’d have destroyed the place.”

“What is this?” Webster said as he sauntered over, having heard half the conversation. “Pick on Webster day?”

“Yep,” Nixon answered around a mouthful of biscuit. “After you kept me up all night with those Godzilla fish, I have the right.”

Webster rolled his eyes. “It was only until two thirty, and Popeye’s toothache was really bad, we had to get his tooth out.”

Nixon nodded slowly, accepting the mug Welsh handed him. “Yes, I forgot you talk shark and that Popeye told you just how bad his tooth was.”

Welsh sniggered next to him, starting to hand over the cups of hot drinks to Lipton and Speirs, who distributed them to the rest of the team. Liebgott then popped out of nowhere, standing between Webster and Winters.

“You talk shark?” he said to Webster. “You learn that at Harvard too?”

“Oh, piss off.” Webster sighed, turning away and heading for the steps.

“Where you off?” Nixon called.

Webster opened up the door at the top of the steps and shouted back down, “Its feeding time.”

All of a sudden Nixon looked thrilled like he’d just won the lottery, whereas Liebgott’s face turned a touch paler than it already was, and as Welsh handed Winters his cup of coffee he picked up his own, taking a sip.

“Well, I guess I can leave you in the capable hands of Nix over here,” he said. “I’ve got to go and fix up some things for the test later on, practice the injecting method and what not.”

“Yeah, okay.” Winters nodded, seeing Nixon smile his way. “When will you be doing the testing?”

“Say a few hours,” Welsh answered, shifting his bag over his shoulder. “Will have to be tonight, since Sobel’s only given us a stupid amount of time to do it in.”

Nixon grunted. “Watch your language, Harry.”

Welsh chuckled, “I’ll see you guys later then.”

Winters was left with Nixon who came to stand next to him, he smiled up at the red head who felt his damn cheeks burn up again. Nixon was about to address Winters when he noticed the figure standing by the staircase, Liebgott seemed to be entranced by the ocean through the window, eyes practically bulging out of his head.

“You gonna watch Web feed the fishes, Lieb?” Nixon asked, approaching the older man.

Liebgott snapped out of it, cool exterior back in place. “Pfft, no. Stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, him and his dumb sharks.”

Nixon smirked, he knew exactly why Liebgott looked slightly panicked seconds ago, and he’d bet everyone else would know too. “You sure? Don’t want to make sure Web’s alright?”

“He’ll be fine, why should I care!” Liebgott almost yelled, feeling his temper rise. “I’ve got… food to make.” He said in a huff, before he span around and stomped up the steps like an angry child.

Nixon chuckled, putting all his attention back on the executive, who seemed just a tad bit confused by what had just gone on. Nixon explained as he made Winters follow him to the front of the room, where everyone was gathered to watch the underwater cameras, where every angle of the cage under the sea could be seen.

“Liebgott likes Webster?” Winters repeated Nixon’s words, as they took their place next to Speirs and Lipton. “It didn’t seem like it to me.”

“Oh, trust me.” Nixon said, sipping his coffee. “We all know those two have a thing.”

“And by thing,” Luz stepped in. “He means some serious sexual tension.”

“Really?” Winters frowned in thought, thinking back to all the bickering he’d already witnessed in the last half hour alone. “That’s what you call sexual tension?”

“Dude,” Heffron began, sitting in front of him. “Trust us, once you’ve spent the day with those two, there’s no missing it.”

“Yeah,” Guarnere agreed. “Liebgott may act like a tough son of a bitch, but sometimes his tough act slips and we see just how soppy he is for one David Webster.”

“Of course, we won’t tell him that we’ve noticed,” Heffron said. “We don’t want to ruin his reputation of being an angry, crazy person.”

“Edward,” Roe said softly. “Don’t be so mean.”

Heffron looked over at him guiltily, quietly apologising.  Guarnere and Nixon shared a knowing smile before Lipton caught everyone’s attention, he pointed to the screen on the right, just as they saw a shadowy figure swim across it.

“Is he out there with the sharks?” Winters asked in disbelief.

“Of course not.” Speirs said. “There’s titanium cages underwater that he can swim through, he uses them to study and watch the sharks from underwater.”

“And of course, to feed them.” Nixon said with a shiver, secretly hating the fact that his best friend went anywhere near the monster’s in the first place.

“Okay,” Toye said, everyone going quiet like the flick of a switch. “Malarkey, you copy up there?”

“ _I copy, Toye_ ”. Came Malarkey’s voice over the speaker. “ _Test tiger sharks are rearing to go_.”

“Gotcha,” Toye pressed a red button, just as Webster’s figure appeared on the screen, stopping near the end of a cage. “You hear us, Web?”

“ _Loud and clear_.” Webster said over the radio. “ _Dinner is released and ready_. _Release them when you’re ready, Malark_.”

Over the speaker’s there was an echoing squeal from metal as a lever was pulled, and then the sound of a huge splash as the sharks were let into the water. Winters watched on in fascination as the mysterious silhouette of a shark swam through the water calmly yet chillingly, heading for the cage that Webster was floating in, where he was observing their every move. Then, just off of another screen he noticed another shark, but this one seemed a lot smaller that the test sharks.

“Is that the shark’s baby?” Winters whispered to Nixon, who beamed at his question.

“No,” he said. “That’s the shark’s dinner.”

Winters had no idea what he meant until he saw it for himself. One minute the test shark was swimming steadily through the water, and the next, its humongous jaws opened up wide and it pounced, speeding through the ocean and heading right for the small shark. Just as it was about to clamp down on its prey, another gigantic shark appeared from the opposite direction, and the two came together to take out the small shark, sharing their meal as a thick cloud of blood spread around them.

“ _Jesus Christ_.” Webster breathed out, his figure as still as a statue on the screen.

“That was insane.” Luz said in complete awe.

“I’ve never seen them be that aggressive before.” Speirs said, sharing a concerned look with his husband. “Is that normal, Web?”

Webster didn’t answer immediately, which only confirmed that he was thinking the same. “It’s… it’s fine. They’re probably just hungry.”

They might have been hungry, but as Webster watched the sharks maul the smaller animal between them, he couldn’t help but have a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.


	3. The Calm Before the Storm

After feeding time, not many of the team had said anything about what had happened with the sharks. Webster had seemed baffled when Nixon had checked up on him, which meant if he had no idea why the sharks had acted that way, then nobody else would. But, they knew they didn’t have to worry, the place was as safe as it could be, from the titanium cages to the thickest glass, nobody really seemed worried about it. In Guarnere’s words, the sharks were just aggravated from being cooped up inside for so long, like a bunch of zoo animals. Not one person could think of any other reason.

So, that incident was put to the back of everyone’s minds. Everyone except for Webster.

“Lip, I’m telling you, that wasn’t normal.” He said, as he paced around Lipton’s office. “Did you see how they practically hunted for that shark?  They were like a pack of wolves!”

Lipton sighed, sitting back in his desk chair as Speirs turned a page in his book nearby. “I saw Web, but I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, it’s probably what Guarnere said, animals get annoyed and irritated after being caged in for so long when they’re not used to it.”

“But they _are_ used to it,” Webster said, fiddling with the sleeves of his jumper in frustration. “They’ve been in captivity since the day they were born, Lip. They’ve known no different.”

Speirs chose to jump in then, getting up and taking a seat on the edge of the desk. “What about when the one escaped? You said it yourself, that wasn’t normal behaviour either.”

“I know,” Webster sighed, rubbing his hands down his face. “It’s just… they’ve been acting so weird lately, they’re not behaving like sharks, they’re behaving like…” Webster stopped himself, shaking his head. “Never mind, they’re just… I just think we need to be more careful.”

“I agree.” Speirs said simply.

Lipton nodded. “Don’t worry, Web, we’re taking in everything you say, we’ll make sure we have extra precautions around the sharks from now on.”

Webster nodded slowly. “Thanks guys, sorry for bothering you.”

“Don’t be, Dave.” Lipton said, getting up himself and putting an arm around the younger man to lead him to the door. “Look, I know you’re worried, you see things in those sharks that we don’t, if you really think something’s going on I’ll have a word with Harry, see if we can do some extra tests on them. Nixon can run some blood tests maybe.”

“Yeah,” Webster mumbled. “Thanks, Lip.”

“Just, don’t tell the others about your concerns, I don’t want them worrying.”

“I know,” Webster smiled a little. “Knowing Luz he’d start a full blown internet search to find a solution.”

Lipton chuckled. “Yeah, we don’t want another replay of that.”

“No.” Webster chortled quietly. “I’ll see you later, Lip. Thanks again.”

“No problem, see you later.”

Lipton shut the door soundlessly as Webster made his way down the corridor. As it clinked into place, Lipton turned to find his husband standing by the desk, arms crossed and a frown creasing his eyebrows. Lipton smiled, wandering over to him and running his hands down the man’s tensed arms.

“What’s the matter, darling?” he asked.

Speirs shrugged. “You think Web’s right? That something’s wrong with the sharks.”

“Of course he is,” Lipton said in all seriousness. “Web knows sharks like the back of his hand, I’ve no doubt that what he said is true.”

“Yeah,” Speirs sighed heavily. “I just don’t want those damn things to cause anymore havoc, after they almost killed those kids.”

Lipton nodded his head in agreement. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. Guarnere and Malarkey have already had the fence fixed, I’ll have a word with Harry like I said about taking extra precautions, and get those sharks tested.”

“Think Harry will agree? Might disrupt his testing.”

“We’ll do it after the testing.” Lipton assured him. “Tonight will be the last test after all, and besides, if tonight doesn’t work I don’t know what they’ll do with the sharks.”

Speirs hummed, uncrossing his arms and lifting himself up off the desk. “Anyway, I think we’ve had enough shark talk for the time being, I’m starting to really hate the damn things.”

Lipton grinned, pulling the younger man closer around his waist. “Me too, maybe we should concentrate on other things.”

Speirs smirked. “Such as?” he said, winding his arms around the other man’s neck.

Lipton answered with a kiss, tugging his husband towards the bed.

 

 

“ _Attention Mr and Mr…. Lipton? Speirs? Lipton-Speirs? Spipton? What’s written on your mail?_ ”

Lipton groaned as he pulled Speirs closer to him in the bed, tucking his head further into the back of his neck. “Whoever’s idea it was to give Muck that microphone, they need some serious talking to.”

“I can think of a few other ideas besides talking.” Speirs deadpanned, as the speaker in the corner of the room screeched, earsplittingly loud. “He better have a good explanation for this.”

“ _What?... Penk… no not that one… the other… oh crap… what was I saying again?”_

Lipton couldn’t help but chuckle at his friend’s silliness as he began rambling on about what he was supposed to have said, Speirs obviously didn’t find it amusing in the slightest, as he twisted around in Lipton’s arms, and rested his head on his chest, pulling the blanket over his head.

“Make him stop.” Speirs sighed, as Muck started shouting at Penkala again.

“ _Oh! Yeah! Shit! Forgot I was supposed to… Lip, Speirs! You need to get your butts up here, on deck, there’s been a slight… problem? Yeah… there’s a problem!”_

That undeniably caught the couple’s attention. Speirs threw back the blanket, lifting his head and sharing a worried look with Lipton who was already planning for the worst.

“ _We need you guys up here, now! Please?”_

Within seconds, Lipton and Speirs had flung off the covers completely, dressed in a flash, and were flying for the door. They discussed what could possibly be wrong above water at that time of night, knowing the sharks had been fed and satisfied, the security feeds were working perfectly fine, everyone was having a few hours kip in their rooms before the big test that night, so they couldn’t work out approximately what was going on. Unless Muck had destroyed some very expensive machinery, which Lipton hoped beyond hope that that wasn’t the case.

They soon found out as they rode the elevator to the top floor. They were expecting to see Muck and Penkala waiting for them or at least out on the piers, but they were met with absolute, eerie silence. As they stepped out, they looked at one another in confusion, as nobody was anywhere in sight. The water swayed calmly in the wind, the soft clink of chains hitting the metal railings echoing in the quiet air, and no indication of any person being there whatsoever.

“If they’re up in that tower playing pranks again…” Speirs started, but was cut off by the high-pitched sound of a rocket launching into the sky.

Speirs and Lipton jumped at the sudden sound of a firework exploding just above them, the bright, colourful lights soaring in all directions. Then, over to their right up on the decking, came a loud cheer from all their friends, waving and yelling cheerfully, bursting off party poppers and throwing confetti up in the air.

“SURPRISE!” They all hollered.

Then the couple noticed the massive banner that hung above two poles, reading in bold, red letters: _Happy Anniversary Lip and Sparky!_ Lipton grinned at Speirs who looked like he wanted to run back inside and never come back out.

“Come on you guys!” Nixon called from the balcony. “Get your asses up here!”

“Yeah!” Luz whooped. “Time to party!”

“We’ve got food!” Guarnere declared, waving around a taco to prove it. “Get a move on!”

Lipton took hold of Speirs’s hand, the two having a silent conversation as they made their way up the steps. Speirs hated parties, he hated being dragged up to dance, he hated all the noise, and he mainly hated being disturbed from a comfortable sleep with his husband to be whisked into a celebration he wanted to celebrate with just the two of them.

“Come on, darling.” Lipton said to him as they climbed the steps. “They’re our friends, and we weren’t going to do anything for our anniversary besides stay in bed until the test anyway.”

Speirs hummed. “I guess.”

Lipton chuckled, kissing the back of his hand. “That’s the spirit.”

As they reached the top, they were both greeted by a slightly animated bunch of guys, each giving them both hugs and their congratulations, before they whisked them off to the buffet table. The food looked beyond enjoyable, from the mini sausage rolls, to the assortment of sandwiches, not to mention the huge icing sponge cake sat on the end. Lipton chuckled at the picture on its front, of two stickmen holding hands with what looked to be two rings above their heads.

Liebgott noticed and scoffed light-heartedly. “Hey, don’t go laughing at my art. Took me ages to draw that.”

“I can see why you’re not a baker.” Speirs muttered.

Webster nodded in agreement beside him. “I wonder if it tastes as bad as it looks.”

“Hey!” Liebgott squawked, picking up a tomato from the salad bowl and tossing it at Webster’s head. “At least I can cook, Mr. Ready meals.”

“Fuck off.” Webster snarled.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Nixon cut in, standing between the two and putting an arm around their shoulders. “Sit your butts down you two, before I throw you both into the shark infested waters. Okay?”

They both glared at one another before walking in opposite directions, taking a seat like they were told. Nixon rolled his eyes at the married couple who were still waiting by the cake.

“What you stop them for?” Speirs said, looking fed up already. “Could have been the highlight of the party.”

“Oh, Ron.” Lipton laughed softly. “At least try to enjoy.”

“Yeah, grumpy butt.” Nixon snorted, nudging him before addressing the party goers. “Right, as everyone’s taken their seats like a bunch of goody two shoes that you are, I’d like to make a toast before we get this party started.”

As he said it, Welsh strolled on over with four bottles of beer balancing in between his fingers, handing one each to the three standing. Every employee had their own bottle or glass, waiting to cheer Lipton and Speirs as Nixon continued.

“Because I hate talking and would much prefer to be drinking, I’ll keep this short.” The crowd laughed, even gaining a smile out of Speirs. “We just want to say congratulations on your one year of marriage, guys. We know how hard it was for the both of you at the start, what with Speirs having no bloody clue that you were dating for the first few months.”

There was more laughter, Lipton grinning down at Speirs whose face was turning slightly pink. “But you guys overcame all the obstacles in your way because of how much you love one another, I could tell from the moment I saw you two together that you’d be spending the rest of your life with one another. I’m stupidly happy for you both, especially you Ron, me and Web seriously thought you’d never find someone who could put up with your weird hording obsession.”

Speirs rolled his eyes as once again Nixon got a laugh out of his friends. “It’s called collecting.”

“Whatever you say.” Nixon grinned. “Anyway, on behalf of all of us, happy anniversary Lip and Sparky, here’s to the both of you,” he held up his bottle, as did everyone else. “and to many years to come. Lip and Sparky!”

“Lip and Sparky!” Everyone roared, holding up their beverages and cheering the couple.

“Now,” Nixon called. “Don’t you dare get drunk you idiots, we have testing to do tonight. Let’s get this party started, I’m fucking starving!”

An hour later the party was in full swing. Half of the food was already gone, including the cake that was near fully eaten, the drinks (mostly non-alcoholic to Lipton’s relief) were being drank like there was a shortage, and some of the guys were rocking it out on the small space near the bar that they’d dubbed the dance floor. To nobody’s surprise, Luz, Muck and Penkala were doing a rather enthusiastic version of the Macarena.

Toye sat back, taking a sip of his bottle and grinning as Luz rolled his hips. “Now that’s what I call a show.” he winked at the younger man, who giggled like a school girl.

“You guys need to get a room.” Guarnere pretended to vomit, as Luz tipsily sauntered over and sat himself in Toye’s lap. “Or an island, where we can’t hear you.”

“We have a room, Billy Bob.” Luz beamed, taking a swig from Toye’s beer. “It just happens to be yours and Heffron’s too.”

“That’s the problem.” Heffron snorted, rolling his eyes as Luz and Toye literally began making out right in front of them. “And here we go.”

Roe, who was sitting in between Heffron and Malarkey, looked anywhere but at the two getting tangled up in each other. “Please tell me they ain’t about to have sex right here.”

As he said it, the group noticed Luz’s hand begin to very noticeably creep into Toye’s pants.

“Oh, hell no!” Guarnere yelled, making Toye and Luz separate in surprise. “I don’t care how tipsy you both are, if you want to get it on, get your asses back inside where our innocent, untainted eyes can’t see you!”

Luz pouted. “But I ain’t had any cake yet.”

“I’ll save you some.” Malarkey said, drinking his own beer calmly.

“Great!” Luz grinned, hopping off of Toye’s lap and tugging him up off his chair. “Let’s go get it on, Joey!”

Toye smirked, saluting the group as he was pulled along by the smaller man. “See you boys later.”

The group shared a look with one another, before they all burst out laughing, shaking their heads in disbelief. Liebgott chose that time to plonk himself in a chair opposite them, snacking on some breadsticks.

“God damn idiots.” Guarnere chuckled. “Blind as bats.”

“Who, Luz and Toye?” Liebgott muttered around his grub.

Malarkey nodded. “You’d think they’d just admit their feelings by now, huh?” he said, the rest nodding in agreement. “Maybe they’ll come around one-,”

“Malark!”

The red head was interrupted as Muck and Penkala came waltzing over, literally.

“Come join us!” Muck sing-songed, letting go of Penkala to try and grab Malarkey’s arm and drag him up to dance. “Come on!”

“No, no,” Malarkey argued. “Bugger off, I’m fine here.”

“Oh come on!” Penkala whined, going for Roe. “You too, Roe! You ain’t moved all night!”

Roe’s eyes widened, suddenly looking like he was being asked to break the law. “Oh, no. I can’t dance, I’m fine.”

“I won’t take no for an answer.” Penkala grinned, taking Roe’s hand and pulling him up, just as Malarkey had given in to Muck’s nagging and joined him. “Let’s have some fun, doc!”

“He doesn’t want to!” Heffron called after them, but was too late as Penkala already had Roe dancing along with him, the two laughing together as they looked like a couple of fish out of water.

“Aw,” Liebgott teased. “You don’t want anyone else dancing with your Eugene?”

Heffron glared. “Shut the fuck up.”

Liebgott chortled evilly, sharing an amused look with Guarnere. It was no secret that Heffron had the biggest crush on the medic, everyone in the facility knew, hell, all the employees joked that even the sharks knew. All except Roe himself. The medic was downright oblivious to Heffron’s googly eyes and nervous stutters, which amused the entire team even more.

“Why don’t you just ask him to dance, you scaredy cat?” Guarnere said, giving the red head a hard prod with his elbow.

“No.” Heffron simply said, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting like a small child. “I can’t.”

Guarnere rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what his friend was thinking. “Let me guess, because you think Roe is too good for you, or that you’re not his type, or that he wouldn’t want a boyfriend that’s just a reporter.”

“Or that Roe doesn’t like red heads.” Liebgott added, munching on his breadstick. “That’s another popular one.”

“Oh, fuck you both.” Heffron growled. “I do not say those things.”

Liebgott and Guarnere laughed. “They’ve been your excuses since the day you met him.” Guarnere said. “Look, Babe.” He began, looking at his friend in all seriousness. “You’ve been swooning over Doc for almost a damn year now, stop making up bullshit because you’re too scared to make a move. If you don’t do it soon, well, Doc might get snatched up and it’ll be too late.”

Heffron frowned, looking over at Roe who was enjoying a weird version of the waltz with Muck. “What if he doesn’t like me?”

Liebgott snorted. “He fucking likes you, Babe.”

“He adores you, you dumbass.” Guarnere said, downing the rest of his drink. “Docs just busy all the time so he doesn’t think about relationships, _you’ve_ got to ask _him_ out.”

Heffron looked from Liebgott to Guarnere, who were both giving him the ‘listen to us or you’ll regret it’ expression. With a heavy sigh, Heffron sat back and watched Roe have fun out on the dance floor, secretly wishing it was him putting that smile on the medic’s face.

“Okay.” He said. “I’ll ask him out tomorrow.”

“Promise?” Guarnere said seriously.

Heffron nodded, looking nervous. “I promise.”

Guarnere and Liebgott shared a high five.

Meanwhile, over at one of the tables, Nixon and Webster were having a serious conversation. One that Nixon had to bring up due to unfinished business. As he took a sip of his whiskey, Webster looked at him stupid and put down his glass of lemonade.

“Hey!” He gasped. “It wasn’t me, how many times do I have to tell you!”

“Mhmm.” Nixon hummed, putting down his own drink. “That’s not what Speirs said, he was there, remember?”

“There for what?”

As if on cue, Speirs came out of nowhere like he usually did, and took a seat beside Webster, fiddling with a bottle of beer between his fingers.

“Remember that time in middle school, I think it was a couple of weeks after we met you,” Nixon began, as Webster sat there pouting. “Someone wrote that love poem for that really hot substitute, what was his name?”

Speirs thought back and a lightbulb went off in his head. “Mr. Barnsley?”

“That’s the one!” Nixon laughed, grinning at Webster. “Was just reminding Web that that someone was him.”

“It was not me!” Webster growled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It was,” Speirs said plainly, downing his beer. “I’m the one who saw you put it in his desk drawer.”

“I was doing it for Leckie!” Webster groaned. He knew he wasn’t going to win this one, not with those two ganging up on him. “Leckie asked me to put it in there for him.”

“For one, Leckie had a thing for that Hoosier kid two years below us,” Nixon said, putting up his fingers to make his point. “And two, why wouldn’t Leckie do it himself, huh?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him?” Webster almost yelled, getting irritated. “Can we just drop this now?”

“Why?” Nixon grinned. “Don’t want to admit you had the hots for Mr. Hottie?”

Webster rolled his eyes, ignoring his best friend’s words and just sipping slowly on his pop. Speirs and Nixon laughed, just as they heard Welsh give off a loud laugh of his own over by the bar. The three at the table looked over, watching as Welsh started waving his arms about enthusiastically, as he relayed something to Lipton and Winters who were smiling amusedly.

“What’s he going on about over there?” Nixon asked Speirs, who gave a shrug. “So, are you enjoying your party, Mr. Lipton?”

Speirs chuckled. “Not as bad as I’d thought, I guess.”

“Better not be, I planned it.” Webster coughed at him, and Nixon rolled his eyes. “Okay, I planned it and Web helped.”

“Hey, I did more than help.” Webster said. “You made me work with Liebgott on what to choose for the buffet. That was more than enough hard work!”

Nixon winked at Speirs who had a smirk on his face, knowing exactly what the younger man’s plan had been for that one. Get Webster and Liebgott in a room together, make them work as a team, hopefully get a little closer. Nixon’s plan hadn’t worked of course, but it was worth a shot.

“Anyway,” Nixon went on. “I’m glad you two lasted the year, Sparky, don’t know how Lip did it.”

Speirs grunted. “Me neither.”

“Don’t say that,” Lipton said as he came wandering over, taking a seat in Webster’s chair who moved to be beside Nixon. “All it took was getting used to him scaring the neighbours, and accepting the fact that he likes shiny things.”

The occupants of the table laughed, Speirs quirking a smile as Lipton kissed the top of his head.

“So,” Nixon drawled out, taking another swig of his drink. “What did you get each other?”

“Just a few little things.” Lipton answered, taking Speirs’s hand in his. “We didn’t want to make too big of a deal out of it.”

“What?” Webster said in disbelief. “But it’s your one year anniversary, that’s a pretty big deal.”

Speirs shrugged. “We know, we just wanted to be together, that was enough for us.”

Nixon pretended to vomit, earning a grin from the others. “I can’t believe Ronald Speirs just said that.”

Webster nodded in agreement. “Lip, keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I will.” Lipton chuckled, sharing a smile with his husband. “I forgot to tell you, Nix,” Lipton said as he remembered something. “Winters was asking about you just now.”

Nixon was a sight to behold as he took in Lipton’s words, he looked like a deer caught in headlights as his jaw dropped open. “He did?” the vet rushed. “When? What did he say?”

Lipton laughed quietly, as Speirs and Webster listened just as intently as Nixon. “He was just asking about the work you do here, and how long we’ve known each other, and um… he might have subtly asked me whether you were single.”

Nixon grinned widely. “You don’t say?”

“Yeah,” Lipton smiled, sipping on his glass of coke. “He asked whether you lived with anyone back home.”

“Think he likes you, Nix.” Webster said surely, laughing as Nixon took a glance at the red head and couldn’t stop beaming. “Why don’t you go talk to him?”

“You know what,” Nixon said. “I think I will.” He looked down into his glass and hummed. “After I’ve drank enough to not be nervous as hell.”

“Nervous?” Speirs frowned. “Nix, you’re never nervous when you chat up guys.”

“Have you seen this guy?” Nixon guffawed. “He’s like, Mr. Perfect pants over there, with his handsome face, textbook manners, nice clothes, and I bet you he goes to church.”

“That’s too bad,” Webster said. “You’d turn to ashes before you stepped through the front door of one.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Nixon laughed, throwing a nut at him from the bowl on the table.

Webster flung up his hands, and it hit his palm. Poking his tongue out at his friend, Webster’s face suddenly looked like he’d been slapped in the face, he slouched down in his chair and glowered. Nixon turned to see what he was looking at, and couldn’t help but laugh along with Speirs and Lipton who too noticed what the youngest was frowning at.

“Great, here comes the incarnation of the Devil himself.” Webster mumbled, just as Liebgott and Guarnere came to their table.

“Mind if we join you boys?” Guarnere asked, as he took a seat next to Speirs, whilst, tragically for Webster, Liebgott sat next to him. “Muck and Penkala’s dragged all the others onto the dance floor.”

Everyone looked at the middle of the floor, and indeed half the team were boogying to some nineties music, not one of them taking it seriously. They were surprised to see that even Roe had joined in, swaying next to a blushing Heffron who looked like he wanted to be swallowed whole.

“Why does Heffron look like an old man with stiff legs?” Nixon asked, watching as the red head danced awkwardly with his arms by his sides and his feet taking small steps here and there.

The table laughed, nobody needed to answer that question as everybody knew the answer.

“What’s the bet Heffron will be over here in the next thirty seconds?” Guarnere peeked up, challenging the rest of the team as he held up a ten dollar bill from his pocket. “Any takers?”

“Give him a minute.” Speirs said confidently.

“I agree with Spiers.” Nixon said nodding. “He’s probably deciding between wanting to get closer to Doc, or wanting to run away from embarrassment.”

“Don’t be so mean, Nix.” Webster elbowed him, although in his mind he agreed. Poor Heffron looked like the most awkward dancer he’d ever seen. “At least he’s trying.”

“I agree with Web, he’s trying for once.”

Liebgott had his bottle halfway to his mouth, and noticed the group around the table had suddenly gone quiet after what he’d just said. He looked up to see everyone either looking at him in confusion or utter bewilderment. Even Webster looked a little taken aback.

“I’m sorry,” Guarnere spoke up. “But did everyone just hear that or am I losing my mind?”

“Nope, I heard it.” Nixon said, holding up his hand.

Webster nodded slowly. “Did you just agree with me?”

Liebgott gazed around at the others like they’d gone mad, before shrugging and letting out a snivel. “So the fuck what?” he said, sipping on his drink. “Just because I hate your guts doesn’t mean I can’t agree with you.”

Webster frowned, turning away and looking at anything but him. Nixon noticed the slight expression of hurt on his best friend’s face that disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, but he didn’t say anything, knowing it would only cause a fuss from the younger man.

“Hate’s a bit of a strong word, Liebgott.” Lipton said, giving the Jewish man a stern stare.

Liebgott just shrugged, before knocking his empty bottle down on the table. “Whatever, I’m gonna go get another drink, anyone want one?”

Everyone shook their heads, as Liebgott rose from his chair and went to the bar, getting pulled into conversation by Welsh. The atmosphere around the table had suddenly become just a tad awkward, and nobody knew what to say, as Nixon wasn’t the only one who’d noticed Webster’s look of upset at the chef’s words.

Thankfully, it didn’t last long as there came a big crash from the stairs. Every person on the decking jumped in surprise, eyeing the top of the steps to see what on earth had caused such a noise. They soon got their answer, as seconds later Luz and Toye came stumbling up, looking like a pair of drunken fools as they laughed and clung to one another all the way to the top. The two stopped short as they noticed all eyes on them.

“Oh, hi guys!” Luz grinned, giving them a wave. “How longs that barrel been at the bottom of the steps?”

The team laughed, breaking the silence as Luz and Toye made their way back to their old seats, just as Roe and Malarkey joined them, they all groaned as their bet on Heffron was ruined. But, the party continued, and the tension was broken over at Nixon’s table.

“I was wondering where those two went.” Speirs said, earning a laugh from Guarnere.

“Really?” Nixon snorted, seeing Webster out of the corner of his eye gazing over at Liebgott, who went and joined Malarkey’s table instead. “Where’ve you been, Speirs?”

“I was thinking they’d gone to do some work.” Speirs said sarcastically.

“A work _out_ maybe.” Guarnere added, making the rest of the table laugh and groan just thinking about it.

“And that’s my que to leave.” Nixon declared, as he picked up his now empty glass and stood.

“Where you going?” Webster asked, voice quiet.

“To top up.” Nixon answered.

“Don’t drink too much,” Webster said as Nixon slid his chair under the table. “The tests in a few hours.”

Nixon waved his hand, mind far away from the work they’d be doing afterwards. Not that he’d be doing much. “Don’t worry, you know me, I can handle my liquor.”

“Don’t go saying anything stupid to lover boy.” Speirs called over, making everyone laugh.

Nixon turned back to them, sticking up his middle finger in reply. He sauntered over to the bar where Welsh was still chatting away like he was on replay, arms swinging around animatedly, just as he always did when he was talking about something he found interesting. Nixon heard something about a horse and a catfish as he went behind the counter, filling up his glass with some Vat69, before cautiously putting the glass bottle back onto the shelf. He most certainly didn’t want that ending up on the floor.

Making his way further down the bar, Nixon came face to face with Winters who was sitting opposite him, before he took his own seat on one of the stools. Winters looked up from his glass of water and smiled as soon as he realised who it was, Nixon smiling back and rolling his eyes as Welsh was facing the other way and pointing at something on the roof.

Winters chuckled, which caught Welsh’s attention. The small man whirled around and beamed brightly at the newcomer, drumming his hands on the bar. “Well, look who’s here.”

Nixon saluted. “Thought I’d come and save Dick from your company.”

“Hey!” Welsh laughed, leaning on the wooden top. “I’ll have you know, Dick loves my stories. Was just telling him about the time Muck threw a fish out the tower window.”

“Oh yeah,” Nixon tittered, remembering how the fish had landed right into the mouth of a waiting shark. Muck had felt guilty for days. “You should ask him about the time Malarkey and Muck almost put a hole in one of the boats.”

“Yeah?” Winters smiled, his whole attention on the brunette. “Muck sounds like he knows how to get into trouble.”

“Oh, he does.” Nixon grinned, sipping on his drink. “We’re all trouble makers around here. Brings a little fun to the place.”

“Really?” Winters chuckled, leaning forward a little. “Why don’t you tell me a story about yourself? What’s the worst thing you’ve done?”

By this point, Welsh had gone quiet and was moving his gaze from one man to the other. It didn’t take long for him to realise the smirk on Nixon’s lips, the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, and the grin on Winters’s face as he leant into Nixon’s space. Welsh’s eyes widened. They were flirting like a couple of teenagers with a crush. Slowly and discreetly he tip-toed away, grinning from ear to ear.

“Seriously?” Winters chuckled, not believing the words coming out of the vet’s mouth. “You actually put it _on_ his face?”

“Yep,” Nixon laughed, thinking back to his best prank yet. “You should have seen him, as soon as he woke up and saw the tarantula, he was jumping up and screaming like a girl.”

“I can’t imagine Guarnere screaming like a girl.” Winters grinned. “He seems too…”

“Manly?” Nixon finished for him, laughing along with the other man. “Well, that’s what he gets for throwing shark piss on me to wake me up.”

Winter’s eyes widened. “He _what_?”

“Oh yeah,” Nixon nodded. He swore to this day that he could still smell it on his skin. “I still think putting a massive spider on his face wasn’t even close to payback.”

“Well, no.” Winters chuckled, drinking some of his water. “You’re a vet, maybe one day you can sneak some samples from the shelter.”

Nixon perked up at that, a smile tugging at his lips. Winters seemed to have caught on to what he said too, as the next thing Nixon knew was that the red head was blushing all the way to his ears.

“How’d you know I work at a shelter?” Nixon asked, smirking into his glass as Winters’s blush deepened.

“Um… Harry told me.” He said, biting his bottom lip. “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t have been nosy, but I asked him about you.”

Nixon’s eyebrows flew into his hairline, not expecting the older man to be so honest. He must have been right, this man definitely went to church. “You asked him, huh?”

Winters nodded, laughing in embarrassment. “Yeah, guess I was just intrigued.”

“By me?” Nixon grinned. “Well, you and me both. I am a little interested to know more about you too, Mr. Winters.”

“Yeah?” Winters smiled, as Nixon leant closer, sliding his drink to the side. “What would you like to know?”

“I tell you what,” Nixon began, his eyes not leaving the other mans. “You ask me a question, and I’ll answer, and we’ll do a swap.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Winters chuckled, as Nixon grinned his way. “First question, what made you want to become a veterinarian?”

For a couple more hours the pair asked a load of questions to one another, learning more about each other and finding out they had quite a few things in common. One of them was their dislike of Sobel, which Nixon had to high five him for. As they chit-chatted at the bar, Muck and Penkala had given up on the dancing and had moved on to eating all the grub, as Malarkey made sure they didn’t get any more mess all over the floor.

Webster had gone quiet for the rest of the evening, Liebgott sneaking in a few glances at him now and again when nobody was looking. Guarnere had entertained the rest of the gang by bringing out the karaoke machine, which had him and Luz singing for what felt like forever to every single Spice Girls song that existed. Speirs had tried to flee to the safety of his room but was quickly stopped by his husband.

When the clock almost hit ten, Luz had started singing out of tune to a very old love ballad, mostly aimed Toye’s way, who was grinning like crazy at the other man’s antics. And they all wondered how the two were still saying there was nothing between them.

“Okay, guys.” Lipton stood, just as Luz’s song finished. “I think we’d better go get some rest before time gets on.”

As he said it, the music was cut off, and everyone (except Speirs) groaned in disappointment. There was way too much fun to be had, and unfortunately it all had to be stopped because they all needed to adult in a few hours.

“We gonna clean up first?” Nixon called over to Lipton and Welsh, who were conversing by the stairs.

“No,” Lipton answered, noticing most of the team sighing in relief. “We’ll just cover up the food, you all need some rest, we’ve got less than three hours before we start.”

“Oh god,” Heffron moaned, rubbing his head. “That’s like, not long.”

“No, really?”  Guarnere teased. “Looks like you’d better get to bed, Babe.”

“Gladly.” Heffron snorted, waving his goodbyes to everyone before he made his way downstairs, Guarnere, Muck, Penkala, and Malarkey all close behind.

“Would you like some help with the food?” Roe asked, noticing Webster, Liebgott and Speirs pilling up the food and covering them.

“We’re good, Doc.” Lipton smiled, patting him lightly on the shoulder. “You get to bed, we’ll be going in real soon too.”

Roe nodded, walking down the steps to his own bed.

“Well, since you’re almost done,” Luz said, pulling Toye along. “We’ll get our butts to bed too.”

Welsh snickered. “Should have just stayed in bed earlier.”

“Maybe we should have.” Luz grinned, as he and Toye left quietly.

Lipton and Welsh joined the rest of the men who were just about finished with the tidying of the buffet table, helping them stack the foiled plates and fold the table cloth. Speirs, who was standing next to Liebgott, putting some rubbish into a bin bag, noticed the chef eyeing up Webster who was close by. The policeman caught his husband’s gaze, motioning with a tilt of his head for them to get out of the way.

Lipton looked from Liebgott to Webster, understanding immediately.

“Harry,” Lipton said to the small man, shoving a black bag in his hand. “Let’s go pick up the rest of the rubbish.”

Welsh frowned. “I thought we were just going to clean the table?”

“Yeah,” Lipton shrugged, pushing him away. “Place looks a mess, lets clean it up.”

Welsh was being manhandled all the way to the other side of the decking, where Winters and Nixon were still chatting by the bar, Speirs slowly and inconspicuously following. The married couple began collecting the trash littering the floor, moving incredibly slow as to watch the two still over by the table, and eventually Welsh caught on, taking his position behind the bar to watch like it were a reality tv show.

Over by the buffet table, Liebgott was still shoving rubbish into the bin, taking his time about it as he was observing Webster more than focusing on where he was putting the garbage. Webster was too busy wrapping plates with foil to notice, until he felt like someone was watching him, and he looked up. Their eyes met, Liebgott quickly avoiding the other’s gaze, cursing internally for being caught staring.

“What?” Webster said with a frown. “Have I got something on my face?”

Liebgott bit his tongue, wanting so bad to throw out an insult. “No,” he said instead. “Just uh… you’re being too slow.” he wanted to hit himself, it wasn’t an insult, but it wasn’t a nice thing to say either.

Webster just sighed, looking tired. “You do it then if you think I’m so slow, I can’t be fucked anyway.” The biologist thumped the plate down, and threw the foil to the side.

Webster threw a see you soon at the others by the bar, before storming off past Liebgott. The chef growled in frustration, blaming himself for starting another one of Webster’s diva tantrums, and wishing he’d just gone to bed like everyone else earlier.

“Web!” Liebgott barked, turning swiftly to grab the younger man’s arm.

“What?” Webster said angrily, stopping to face him. “I just want to go to bed, Liebgott. So whatever you want to say, say it fast.”

Liebgott rolled his eyes, gripping the bin bag in his hand a little too firmly. “I…” he began, not really knowing why he’d stopped Webster in the first place, although a nagging feeling at the back of his head was telling him to apologise. “I’m sorry.”

Webster scowled, yanking his arm out of Liebgott’s grip. “For what? Constantly being a cruel, self-centred, dickhead?”

“Woah!” Liebgott laughed, not expecting that much of a fight. “A little harsh aren’t we?”

Webster rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest in impatience. “Not really no, just the truth.”

“Wow, you can be such a prick sometimes.” Liebgott scoffed, throwing his no insult rule out the window.

“You’re a fine one talking,” Webster ridiculed. “Looks like we do have something in common after all huh?” he said with spite. “Now if you don’t mind I need to get some sleep, some of us actually have shit to do later.”

Liebgott would have come up with a comeback, but Webster was turning his back to him before he could blink. Watching the younger man practically stomp down the steps, Liebgott threw the bin bag to the side in frustration, giving the wooden table a kick in the process. Turning slightly he saw the others observing him silently, he wasn’t surprised they’d been watching the drama unfold.

“What?” Liebgott called over, not giving a damn if he was being rude. “Shows over!”

With that said, Liebgott left what was left of his job to the others, and made his own way inside to his bed where he would get some peace and quiet.

“Well,” Welsh commented, breaking the silence by the bar. “Did we expect anything different?”

Nixon sighed, putting down his glass of water Winters had suggested he drink. “Those two seriously need a kick up the ass.”

“We could lock them in a room.” Speirs suggested in all seriousness, as they all got up and made their way across the decking.

“That’ll cause an even bigger row.” Lipton said. “Let’s just get some sleep guys, times getting on.”

“What about the mess?” Winters asked.

“We’ll finish up tomorrow,” Lipson answered, as the five of them started making their way down the steps and into the building. “First, we’ve got an experiment to do.”


	4. The Experiment Gone Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: character's will get hurt/killed from here on... sorry! :(

Time seemed to fly that night, for as soon as everyone’s heads had hit their pillows, the alarm was sounding loudly throughout the floor. Muck had thought it would be a great idea to go up into the weather tower, and start playing some upbeat music on the speakers to get the team up and running, which helped some of them, whilst the rest just wanted to strangle him and go back to sleep. The clock was ticking away on the wall as every member of the facility made their way to the lab, most shuffling their feet, wishing Sobel wasn’t such an arse and had given them more time to do it, preferably more time so they could do such things in the daytime.

But, Sobel wasn’t going to give them that, and they had to do what they had to do. So, Winters was led back down to the lab by Welsh, Nixon and Lipton minutes after the team, where they were met with a pretty busy but surprisingly calming atmosphere. As they went inside, everyone was doing their job, but keeping their voices low and getting things sorted in a quiet manner.

“Is everyone sleep walking or something?” Welsh commented as they descended the steps.

“We’re just trying to wake up.” Luz grinned from his station by the computer, and wincing as he did it. He already regretted drinking more than one beer. “It is stupid o’clock in the morning, Welshy.”

“Blame Sobel,” Nixon answered, as he made his way to his supplies near the pool. “If it wasn’t for him we’d still be in bed.”

“If it wasn’t for him,” Guarnere said from the monitors. “We’d be done by now.”

“Enough talk about Herbert fucking Sobel,” Speirs called from the kitchen. “We’ve got better things to do.”

Everyone hummed in agreement. And with a little more noise, the group continued preparing for the night’s event. Luz checked on the computers with squinting eyes and started up the data files, Speirs and Toye took their places by the monitors and made sure they were in working form, Lipton and Welsh gathered their papers and equipment ready for the testing, Nixon called Winters over to help with the emergency tranquilizers, as Heffron took out a device to record the whole thing near the front, and Webster zipped up his wet suit and prepared for his dive. The others, well, since they weren’t really doing anything, they sat back on the kitchen chairs and relaxed.

“Why are we here again?” Penkala mumbled, already falling asleep.

“They need us as witnesses. Except for Roe, he’s here encase someone gets a papercut.” Liebgott answered, just as drowsy.

“Papercuts are no laughing matter, Liebgott.” Roe said with a smile, placing his first aid kit on the table. He probably wouldn’t need it anyway.

“I agree with that.” Guarnere said, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

“Me too!” Malarkey put up his hand, sipping on his coffee. “Papercuts are a bitch.”

“You guys have the weirdest conversations!” Muck declared, as he strolled into the lab and almost fell down the stairs. “Jesus, I’m tired, someone pass me the coffee!”

“Here.” Malarkey passed him his mug, knowing his best friend would be begging for the caffeine as soon as he stepped foot in the room.

“Guys!” Muck shouted at everyone in the room, who stopped what they were doing. “Thought I should tell ya, a big storms on its way, it’s getting pretty bad out there. Had to go up on deck to cover the balcony, don’t want that food getting wet.”

“I hope you put the cake away behind the bar!” Luz grinned, as Muck answered with a thumbs up. And then the computer whizz asked, “Is the storm bad enough to interfere with the systems?”

“Maybe,” Muck answered, taking a seat on the kitchen counter. “Visibility might be bad down in the water. There’s a hurricane somewhere off the coast, I’ll keep an eye out on my phone.”

“Thanks Skip.” Lipton said, as everyone went back to work.

It took a short amount of time before every person was ready to start, equipment set up, computers good to go, back-ups waiting, and data all up to date. The first thing they had to do was probably the most dangerous, especially for Webster.

“Okay,” Lipton began as everyone stood around the pool and near the monitors. “So, Web, you just shoot whoever gets in the way with the darts if they cause any trouble, lure one of them in and get them onto the board, we’ll bring it straight up, that alright?”

Webster nodded, swinging his legs into the water. “Let’s just hope it works and I don’t become shark chow.” He said, picking up his goggles and respirator.

“There’s enough crap in that gun to put an elephant into a deep sleep for over four hours,” Nixon assured him. “It’ll work.”

“You sure about that?” Webster teased his friend, swinging the dart gun onto his shoulder.

“Fuck you.” Nixon answered jokingly, before taking a seat near the monitors. “Good luck, shark boy.”

“Yeah, Web,” Guarnere added as he strolled over and stopped by the machinery, pressing the button to lower the board at the bottom of the pool. “Don’t get eaten while you’re down there.”

Webster laughed, shaking his head at his friends before he carefully got into the water, holding onto the side as he prepared his face mask.

“Okay guys,” Welsh called, clapping his hands together. “Get your butts over to the screens, we have a movie to watch.”

“Glad I could bring some entertainment to the place.” Webster snorted, as everyone laughed and crowded around the screen. “See you guys soon.”

“Hopefully.” Heffron teased.

Webster rolled his eyes, about to put on his mask. As he was about to do so, he caught Liebgott’s gaze, who was standing alone by the computers, away from the others. As the team began bickering and laughing over which button works for what, Webster could just about hear what Liebgott said to him.

“Be careful.”

Webster could see in Liebgott’s expression that he wasn’t kidding around like he usually did, he meant it. The marine biologist could only nod in reply, wondering why all of a sudden Liebgott was so worried about him. But he didn’t have time to float around the pool, so he quickly put on his face mask, and dove under the water, just about seeing Liebgott watching his every move out of the corner of his eye. Webster swam as quickly as he could through the water, making his way to the opened door of the cage.

“Right,” Toye said as the cameras flickered to life on the screen. “We’re on.”

“Shit visibility, as I thought.” Muck sighed, turning the cameras with the lever. There was a camera stuck to every crook and cranny of the cages underwater, the team able to see everything that went on. “Can just about make out the cage.”

“Will be hard to see the damn sharks in that.” Nixon mumbled.

“Yeah,” Welsh agreed. “I’m sure Web will be fine though, he’s an expert.”

“No, really?” Penkala snickered.

“Shut it you!” Welsh grinned, nudging Speirs to press another one of the buttons. “Is it even on?”

“It’s on, Harry, relax.” Speirs assured him. “Web, can you hear us?”

There came a sound of rustling through the communicator, followed by a bleep, and everyone held their breaths in disquiet, that little voice inside their heads telling them something was going wrong already. But they all breathed a sigh of relief when Webster’s form appeared on the screen, swimming gracefully through the long, metal cage.

“Can hear you loud and clear, Speirs.” Came Webster’s voice. “Feels like I’m driving through fog down here.”

“May as well be.” Guarnere said.

“How’s it looking down there?” Lipton asked. “Can you spot any of the sharks?”

“No,” Webster said with a sigh, gliding around a corner and carrying on straight down another lengthy part of the enclosure. “I can’t see a thing, I’ve got no idea where they are.”

“They’re there,” Nixon said, teasing in his tone. “Try talking shark, Web.”

“Fuck you, Nix.” Was his answer.

Everyone laughed, and their laughter was quickly cut off as Webster gasped out of the blue. Before anyone could ask what had happened, they could see for themselves. In a flash, two sharks were beating their heads against the cage, one charging in from Webster’s left, and the other from his right.

“Jesus, fuck!” Toye cursed.

In a split second Liebgott had joined the group, standing behind Nixon to pear over his shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“What are they doing?” Luz squealed, just as freaked out as everyone else as the creatures carried on smashing against the metal.

“They’re synchronized.” Lipton said in shock. “How long has that been going on?”

“It hasn’t.” Webster said through the speakers. “They’ve never done this before!”

“Web, shoot the damn things!” Nixon almost yelled. “Fuck, if they carry on they’ll get through the damn cage!”

“I thought the cages could take a hit?” Winters said, his voice unsure.

“That’s what we thought.” Nixon said, sounding just as unconvinced as the other man. “Web, just shoot them!”

Webster didn’t need to be told, there was such a huge dent in the cage that if they did carry on, he’d give himself minutes before they’d be eating him up for lunch. So the diver lifted his gun, ready to shoot and stop the animals. Webster had a bit of a surprise when as he did so, both sharks jumped backwards as if they’d been stunned.

“What the?” Webster whispered. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen, in astonishment he lowered the gun and watched the sharks swim speedily away. “Did you guys see that?”

“We saw it alright.” Lipton answered, sounding just as shocked. “They got scared.”

“They recognised those guns.” Speirs added.

“Is that not normal?” Roe asked them, not having as much knowledge about the animals.

“No, it’s not.” Webster said, as the sharks completely disappeared out of sight. “They… they swam backwards, guys, sharks can’t swim backwards.”

“Maybe these guys can?” Heffron shrugged, not even believing himself.

“No,” Webster said surely. “No shark can swim backwards, it’s impossible.”

“Web,” Welsh said, cutting in, and going uncharacteristically quiet. “Be alert, stay focused.”

Webster went silent, and carried on through the water, putting that incident to the back of his mind for now. The entire room just stared at the screens, every one of them looking out for a shark, waiting for one to pop out of nowhere at any moment. A part of Lipton didn’t want to continue, he gazed at the tele and saw Webster swimming out there, remembering what the younger man had said the night before, about how the sharks were behaving strange. What had happened moments ago was proof that Webster really was right about it all.

He was about to say something, when Luz gasped from in front of one of the displays. All eyes turned to the screen, instead of showing the underwater cage, static blinked on and off, then suddenly another camera switched to static just as quick.

“We lost picture on camera two and three.” Speirs said calmly, Toye and himself trying but failing to get it back.

“What’s happening?” Malarkey questioned.

As he asked, another television was cut off, then another. Nobody having any clue what was going on, and Webster being silent on the other end had them all on edge. Just as the last but one screen flashed black and white, all eyes were on the last television screen, and there were gasps of horror as on the screen came the wide, open mouth of a shark, about ready to clamp its jaws down on the camera. Within seconds the screen cut out.

There was complete silence in the lab. Not one person had any idea what was going on, and they all suddenly felt dread and fear wash over them. To make matters worse, a light flickered on the edge of the control panel, alerting them of another fault.

“The lights are out.” Toye muffled, stabbing at buttons, trying anything to get the video back up. “Everything’s off.”

“What do you mean everything’s off?” Liebgott practically shouted, nudging past Nixon and Winters to get to the front. “What the fuck’s happening? Web’s out there for fuck sake!”

“We know, Liebgott!” Guarnere shouted back. “Jesus, we don’t know what’s going on!”

“They did this,” Luz spoke up. “You saw them, the sharks busted up the cameras.”

“And I suppose they switched off the electric too.” Guarnere mumbled.  “Fuck, what is happening.”

“Can you get a hold of, Web?” Lipton said, putting a hand on Liebgott’s shoulder as he saw him ball his hands into fists. “Get him back online.”

“Web, do you copy?” Toye spoke into the microphone. “Web?”

Speirs slammed his fist onto the panel in frustration. “ _Webster_ , do you copy?”

“Where the fuck is he?” Liebgott muttered.

Nobody mentioned the slight break in his voice.

Meanwhile, out in the underwater cage, Webster was all alone. After the sharks had swum away, he’d held on tight to his gun and continued down the enclosure, until he came to the end of the tunnel and was in front of a locked gate. He still had a job to do, and the lights going out all of a sudden wasn’t going to distract him. Clicking the torch into life on his gun, Webster put in the password to open up the gate, and with a beep the thick, metal door unbolted. He gave it a push, and without a second thought swam out into the deep, murky sea, the only sound in his ears was of his own wild heartbeat.

Kicking his feet steadily, he gradually made his way out into the never-ending space, turning left and making his way back towards where he knew the board was waiting. All he had to do was follow the enclosure, going backwards but instead of being safe behind the metal bars, he was out in the open and moving around like live bait. And it didn’t take long for one of the creatures to find him.

Webster had swam with sharks long enough to know what the feeling of being watched was like, a chill ran down his spine and he could just about pick out the sound of swishing water coming from behind. He was being followed, and he had no doubt that within less than a minute he would be attacked. So, he had seconds to come up with a plan, and he got right to it.

Unbuckling the air tank on his back, Webster pulled off the back up oxygen cylinder stuck to his suit, and let the heavy tank slip off his shoulders. In one hand he clung to his dart gun, and with the other he held his spare breathing device, whilst the tank hung from the strap around his arm. He could just about make out the part of the cage that he’d come through earlier, which meant the bottom of the pool he had to get the shark on was meters away from it.

He put his plan into action, hoping that the shark was dull enough to fall for it. He spun around to face his predator, its shadowy figure lurking in the distance but growing closer and closer. Without another thought, Webster swung his gun onto his shoulder, flung off his flippers with a free hand, clutched the cylinder tightly in his grip, and wrapped his arms around the large tank after turning it upside down. As the shark grew near, Webster took a deep breath and ripped the mask off his face, yanking at it so the cord attaching the mask and tank would tear.

In a split second the oxygen from the tank was escaping, bubbles running out of it like water from a tap. And from the force of the air escaping Webster was sent flying back, clasping onto the tank as best as he could. The shark came to life then, darting after him like a bullet shot from a gun, gaining on Webster as it opened its humongous jaws.

Webster counted down in his head, predicting how close he’d be to the pool’s board, and as he reached one the marine biologist let go and frantically swam as far away from it as he could. He almost yelled in victory as he spun around in the water and saw the shark bite down hard on the tank, and as it did so it went crashing into the side of the cage.

Webster quickly grabbed onto his gun, held it up and took his shot. The dart flew out from the barrel, hitting its target, and sending the animal into a frozen state. Webster watched in fascination as the shark seemed to calmly fall into a sleep, its heavy body floating like a leaf in the wind onto the floor.

Back in the lab, everyone was just about losing their minds. It had been minutes since the cameras had been struck out, and Webster hadn’t answered them after repeatedly yelling at him through the microphone. Speirs was getting so frustrated that he was seconds away from going down into the water himself, and Liebgott wasn’t helping with his angry bursts every now and then.

“He could be fucking dead down there!” Liebgott shouted for the billionth time.

“He’s not dead, for Christ sake!” Nixon yelled back. “Calm down, Liebgott!”

“Guys!” Malarkey bellowed, making everyone in the room freeze, and turn to the red head who was standing by the pool. “The board’s been activated from below,” he said. “It’s got to be Web!”

His prediction was answered seconds later, when the pool began to rumble, and the sound of the pool floor banging and humming echoed around the lab. Everyone ran to take a look, praying silently that it wasn’t just a glitch in the system or something just as maddening.

Suddenly, through the foaming bubbles in the water, a fin popped up and soon began to reveal the long, wide body of a humongous shark. Everybody’s heart skipped a beat as along with the shark, Webster appeared out of the water next to it, taking in a deep breath as if he’d been holding it for way too long of a time.

“Web!” Nixon cheered, a grin spread his face.

“Thank God.” Lipton sighed heavily, sharing a look of relief with his husband.

Luz and Toye shared a high five as the younger shouted, “Someone order sushi?”

“You trying to give us a fucking heart attack, Webster!” Guarnere chuckled, as Webster leant against the sleeping animal, trying to catch his breath. “I swear we all got grey hairs now!”

Webster just laughed lightly. “What the hell happened?” he asked between breaths. “The lights just went out down there, I couldn’t hear you.”

“We’re not really sure,” Malarkey answered. “Might be the storm.”

“Or the sharks.” Luz mumbled.

“Whatever it is, it’s over with.” Welsh said, smiling down at the man in the water. “What happened to your gear anyway?”

Webster looked down at himself, only his wetsuit was still intact. “Oh, uh… I might have had to improvise with the tank and the flippers got in the way.”

Welsh laughed, shaking his head. He wasn’t surprised. “We knew you could do it Web, never doubted you.”

“You know me,” Webster began, patting the shark on its side. “I’m the shark whisperer.”

That earned a laugh from the others, who had all relaxed a whole lot more knowing that their friend was alright, and that they were that much closer to getting the experiment on its way. Lipton got everyone’s attention once they’d settled and got back to their positions.

“Okay, now that that’s over with,” he began. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Lipton and Welsh got their bits and bobs at the ready as the others took their place, Nixon dragged Winters up to check on the shark to the red heads utter bafflement, but was happy that he just had to stand there and pass Nixon some kind of medical gadgets when he needed it.

“Sure she’s sleeping?” Nixon asked Webster, before he dipped his feet in the water.

“Pretty sure,” Webster smirked. “Although she might eat you in her sleep.”

“Ha fucking ha.” Nixon snorted, as he took one step into the pool, and that was enough to be able to reach the animals head. He got to it and began checking for any signs of abnormality in the creature.

Webster stayed in his spot, wanting to keep the animal hydrated if necessary, and keep an eye out on her. From what he’d seen earlier, he didn’t want to risk anything. And as Nixon lifted the stethoscope, he was right to assume anything could happen. Out of nowhere the shark suddenly began to thrash and jitter in the water, its head flying up and almost hitting Nixon straight in the stomach. The vet slipped on the tiled floor of the pool, falling backwards, luckily getting caught by Winters who was quick enough to get to him.

“What in the name of Jaws!” Nixon screeched, practically clinging to Winters’s arms that were holding onto him tightly.

“Woah,” Luz gawped. “You really _were_ almost shark chow.”

“What just happened?” Penkala asked curiously.

Webster shrugged, giving Nixon an apologetic look. “Bad dreams?”

Nixon grunted, only then noticing that he was clinging to Winters like a small child clinging to its mother. “Oh uh… sorry.” He apologised, feeling his cheeks burn as he stood up and got out of the pool.

“It’s alright,” Winters said, following him. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Nixon smiled at him reassuringly. “I’ve had worse days than that, trust me.”

Winters grinned. “I believe you.”

Nixon nudged him on the arm playfully as he passed him, leaving him to suffer Welsh’s explanations on what they were getting prepared on the computer screens. So, seeing that everyone was either napping or playing eye spy while waiting for the two scientists, Nixon made his way over to Webster, only to notice a certain someone sitting nearby who hadn’t taken his eyes of the diver since he’d resurfaced.

“Web,” Nixon got down on the floor, sitting on his bottom and crossing his legs. His friend looked up at him, cupping water in his hand and running it down the shark’s skin. “You talked to Liebgott?”

Webster furrowed his brows in confusion. “No, I thought he went back to the kitchen. Why?”

“Thought not,” Nixon said, leaning closer. “Might want to look behind you.”

Webster did as he was told, surprised to find that the man they were talking about was right there. And as Webster caught his gaze, Liebgott hastily looked away, making his way sluggishly to a chair near the small kitchen. He looked like hell.

“Is he alright?” Webster caught himself asking. “I mean… why does he look… he looks…”

“He was worried about you,” Nixon said, and Webster would have laughed if Nixon hadn’t looked at him so serious. “I mean it Web, you should have seen him just now, he went ape shit!”

“I…” Webster didn’t even know what to say. “I don’t… but why?”

“Because he cares about you, you dumbass.” Nixon rolled his eyes, wondering how on earth this kid got into Harvard. “We were all worried about you, but Liebgott, I swear he was losing his mind thinking that he’d lost you.”

“It’s hard to believe he would care that much, Nix.” Webster sighed, rubbing a hand down the shark’s slippery side. “He’s got a funny way of showing it.”

“Yeah,” Nixon shrugged. “You know Liebgott, he’s not exactly the emotional type… well… unless you’re about to be eaten by a shark apparently.”

Webster couldn’t help smile. “Shut up, Nix.”

Nixon laughed, dipping his hand in the water to splash the younger man. “You should talk to him, sort this thing you have between you.” He said, before getting up off the hard ground.

“What thing?” Webster asked, honestly confused.

Nixon could only roll his eyes for the umpteenth time that night. “You know what _thing,_ Web.” Said Nixon, and didn’t stay to hear what Webster had to say next.

The marine biologist was left to ponder his thoughts alone. And as he took a look over his shoulder at Liebgott, who was sitting back in the snug chair, staring down at his hands in his lap, he knew then what the _thing_ was that Nixon was talking about. The thing that he had been trying to avoid and hide for so long, the thing that he’d thought he’d get over in no time, but, Liebgott was apparently his type. It didn’t surprise him at all that his best friends had noticed either. And when the Jewish man looked over, Webster impulsively looked away before he was seen staring.

“Okay, gentlemen,” Welsh rubbed his hands together, and grinned all around, looking like a kid in a candy shop. “Well, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Start recording, Luz.” Lipton said, as Welsh and himself lifted a piece of machinery next to the pool. It looked like a big claw, its long arm stuck to a lit up machine on its end. “All good in there, Web?”

“Yeah,” Webster answered, grabbing a bucket that sat beside the pool, and pouring water over the drying skin of the animal. “She’s doing good.”

“Good to hear.” Welsh snorted, as they easily dragged the claw across to the shark’s head just as Malarkey pressed a button from the balcony, setting off a machine above them that lowered itself over the sharks head like a hat. “Switched on, Luz?”

“Scanning.” Luz answered, his hands skating over the keyboard. “Transferring exotics to remote terminals. Vital signs to terminal one, diagnostic imaging to terminal two.”

The machine hovering over the shark’s head began to glow, a red beam shining down from its insides, as it moved slowly from the front of the creature’s head until it stopped after a few seconds. Malarkey got the thumbs up from Luz, and jabbing another button the mechanism moved back up, and tucked itself away in the ceiling.

“Alright,” Luz cheered. “We have blast off!”

Lipton let out a breath in relief, for some reason feeling a bit anxious. “Okay, Nix, vitals?”

“They’re stable.” Nixon answered from a computer screen opposite Luz. “BP sixty seven over forty three and heart rate fifty BPM, looking normal.”

“Also good to hear.” Welsh grinned at Lipton, as he left the other man to wrench the claw like device on top of the shark’s head, as he pulled at a small computer screen attached to an extending table. Beside the computer, another table lay, full of tubes and sharp things that had Winters gazing at them in curiosity. Welsh noticed him staring and smirked. “Not afraid of needles are ya, Dick?”

Winters chuckled. “That’s a pretty big needle, Harry.”

“Meh,” Welsh shrugged, tapping away at the screen. “She won’t feel a thing.”

“You sure about that?” Webster called from in the water.

“Very sure.” Lipton answered. “She’s out like a light, she’ll be fine.”

Webster didn’t say nothing, but he did watch closely as Lipton pushed the claw into the shark’s head, a red dot shining down onto it’s black skin from the middle. With a squidgy noise, the device pierced the animal and wedged tight, and Lipton only had to turn the screw above each finger, making sure it was kept in place.

“In position.” Lipton said, turning to Nixon.

“Vitals still stable.” Nixon said, reading the look of worry on his friend’s face. “Chill Lip, she’s in sharky dreamland.”

“Wonder what sharks dream of.” Heffron said from nearby.

“Fish and tacos.” Guarnere said confidently. “And seals, Web said they like seals.”

“Why tacos?” Penkala asked, swinging on his chair.

Guarnere looked at him stupid, like it was obvious. “Because tacos are good shit, Penk.”

“Anyway,” Welsh rolled his eyes, getting back to business. “Time to swap, Lip.”

Lipton nodded, swapping places with Welsh and handing him a long, metal needle that lay on the tray. “Not too much.”

“I know.” Welsh assured him, taking the needle and bending over the shark’s head, getting a good look at the device.

The whole room seemed to hold their breaths then, the lab as quiet as a graveyard. Welsh got on his tiptoes, reaching up with the thin rod, inserting it inside a hole smack bang in the middle of the device as cautiously as he could manage. The metal slipped through effortlessly, and Welsh gradually lowered it until the sharp point hit the skin, and pushing with a little force the needle broke through and pierced the layer with a noiseless pop.

“And we’re in, ladies and gents.” Welsh muttered, feeling the sweat run down his brow as he thrust the needle further into the shark’s head.

“Almost there.” Lipton said beside him, eyes on the computer that showed the inside of the animal’s head. The outline of the needle just about hitting its brain. “Just a little more.”

Welsh kept pushing, and pushing, until Lipton told him to halt. “Okay, here we go.” He said, holding the tube above the needle steady, and sliding two fingers around the handle he pulled the top up, liquid the colour of honey was sucked into the tube until it reached halfway.

Welsh then unclipped the tube from the top, handing the substance over to Lipton. The other Doctor held it tight in his hands, knowing this sample was the only thing that could give them any hope of finding a cure. Steadily, Lipton made his way to Nixon who held out a small, clear vial out to him. Welsh carefully slid the needle out of the sharks head, unclipped the machine, and swiftly made his way over to Lipton, who was now extracting some of the shark’s brain fluid to the miniature bottle.

Lipton handed it over to the smaller man, the two sharing a hopeful smile. Everyone in the room had their eyes on Welsh as he strolled over to the telescope, just beside Luz and his computers.

“Introduction two cc’s of the protein complex,” Welsh said out loud, explaining to the others in the room as he went. Because, quite frankly, most of them had no idea what was happening. “into cultured, inactive brain neurons of an Alzheimer’s patient.”

Saying this, Welsh fiddled with the telescope, emptying the liquid into the device. He twisted the dials on its side, letting a couple of droplets fall from the tiny tubes in the middle, right onto the miniscule part of a brain that lay underneath it. He gazed into the telescope, adding a few more drops to the organ.

“And what you’re looking for here,” he continued, making his way back to his own computer situated next to Nixon. “is a bit of lightning.”

The scientist pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, showing a close up of the brain underneath the telescope. Nixon leaned over in his chair, as Winters and Lipton looked over Welsh’s shoulders. Everyone else in the room by now were waiting on edge, half of them not understanding a word Welsh was saying. But they were all waiting for the thumbs up.

“What’s happening now?” Winters asked, as they watched the screen flash.

“Protein complex is interacting with the neurons.” Lipton said quietly.

Welsh nodded slowly, eyes not leaving the screen. It suddenly became even more silent in the room if it were possible, as Welsh and Lipton noticed the picture on the screen change. They gave each other a look of anticipation, eyes wide and hopeful, their confidence growing as what they saw became clear.

“Neurons are becoming hyperosmotic.” Welsh whispered, not believing what he we was seeing. The thin, blue lines on the screen started to grow, turning into blobs of green and yellow. “Membrane integrities improving!”

“Oh my God.” Lipton breathed out, holding his breath.

Nixon stood, taking a closer look. “It’s working?”

As he said it, on the monitor white lines began to flash and strike across the dark background, reaching from one blue line to the other. It looked just like bolts of lightning.

“They’re firing!” Welsh cried in exhilaration. “They’re firing! Holy shit!”

Lipton laughed with him, counting the flashes. “One second, two, three, four…”

“Still firing,” Welsh said, grinning like a madman. And as the timer on the screen stopped, he let out a loud yell of joy. “Six point five, six, zero seconds!”

“It fucking worked?” Nixon asked again, this time in complete shock.

“It fucking worked!” Welsh repeated, swinging his arms in the air and hugging Nixon until he couldn’t breathe.

The entire room erupted in applause and cheers, Muck and Penkala out of nowhere let off some party poppers they’d been saving for the exact moment. Webster couldn’t stop smiling and gave the sleeping shark a pat on his side, and even Liebgott was thrilled and shared a smile with the marine biologist. High fives were shared all around, as Speirs approached his husband and gave him a kiss in congratulations.

Winters was beyond happy for his friend, and gave him a hug. “I’ll be damned.”

Welsh grinned. “No, Dick. For six point six, five, zero seconds, you just saw what’s it’s like _not_ to be damned.”

Winters chuckled, shaking Lipton’s hand. “Congratulations.”

“We finally did it.” Lipton smiled proudly, sharing another kiss with Speirs.

“Impressed much?” Welsh beamed, practically hugging everyone in the room that came his way. “See what we just did?”

“Oh, we saw.” Malarkey said. “Well done you guys.”

“So proud of you.” Roe said as he hugged both the doctors.

“I didn’t understand half of what was going on,” Heffron admitted. “But good job!”

“You weren’t the only one, Babe.” Liebgott said from his spot by the pool.

“Agreed.” Toye snorted. “What the fuck’s a protein complex?”

Luz hummed in agreement. “I always thought protein was chicken, and eggs, and yogurt, and-,”

Lipton chuckled, patting Luz on the back. “You stick to technological terms, George.”

“Happily.”

Guarnere was next to come over and shake their hand. “Can boast about this for the rest of your lives.” he said, as he walked on back and stopped by the shark. He pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.

“No smoking in here, Guarnere.” Webster advised.

Guarnere snorted. “You’re no fun, Web.”

“Put that away.” Lipton said, laughing when Guarnere groaned.

“Don’t worry, Bill.” Muck walked past, tapping him on the shoulder. “We’ll have a big party when we get back, and you can smoke all the cigars you can find.”

“A party is a genius idea!” Luz squeaked in excitement, and he started listing off all the soundtracks he could think of.

As Luz got most of the crowd’s attention, Guarnere watched as Webster still took care of the shark, picking up another bucket full of water and pouring it over the animal’s drying skin. He also noticed Liebgott hadn’t taken his eyes off him either.

“Aren’t you getting a little wrinkly in there, Web?” Guarnere joked, grinning cheekily as Webster stuck his tongue out at him.

“Not as wrinkly as you just yet, Bill.”

Guarnere laughed out loud, shuffling over to the edge of the pool to take a closer look at the creature in the water. Liebgott frowned at him, thinking he was an utter idiot for getting that close, you didn’t have to be an expert to know what a stupid idea that was. Guarnere just shrugged his shoulders, waving him off, ready to get out of there if worse came to worst.

“Guarnere, I wouldn’t get too close if I were you.” Webster said as a matter of fact, as Guarnere kneeled down way too close to the shark’s head. He hauled up another full bucket of water, tossing it over the animal’s body carefully.

“She’s still sleeping,” Guarnere said, lifting his hand and reaching out. “Never touched a shark before you know.”

“Bill.” Webster cautioned, just before the older man’s fingertip brushed the shark’s nose. “Please, I don’t want to risk it.”

Guarnere just laughed lightly, shrugging his shoulders. “Alright, alright, Web. Guess I’ll leave the petting to you.”

Webster smiled, feeling slightly relieved when the mechanic pulled his hand away and was about to stand up. But unfortunately for Guarnere, his timing had been too late. Webster screamed his name in horror as in a split second the shark bounded to life and threw its head from side to side. Guarnere was thrown onto his back from the sheer surprise, legs dangling like a line of bait in the water. That’s when the creature attacked and opened up its enormous jaw, clasping its mouth down on the mechanic’s leg with a sickening snap.

Guarnere screamed at the top of his lungs as his leg was ripped from his body. The entire room had frozen for what felt like too long, shocked into silence until the chaos erupted. Everyone began yelling and moving around in panic at the unexpected incident, shouting the mechanic’s name, grabbing whatever they could find to stop the blood that was pooling out of his wound. Heffron, Muck and Malarkey ran to him, dragging him far away from the blood thirsty animal, keeping him on his back on the white tiles.

As the shark whipped and swayed its strong body around the water, Liebgott felt sick to the stomach seeing Webster still in the water with it. “Web!” he yelled, almost tipping over to get to the edge of the pool. “Fuck! Get out of there!”

The marine biologist didn’t want to be in there much longer, and turned around fast, finding Liebgott kneeling by the pool with his hand stretched towards him. Webster took his hand and was yanked out of the water, and didn’t think twice about racing to get the gun that was locked behind glass just meters in front of him. He used his elbow to smash through it, lifting the weapon out of its container, and walking back the way he came he coked the gun and lifted it up to aim. Webster had known something bad would happen, he knew there was something wrong with the sharks, so he had no problem in putting them down for good. Not after what she’d done to Guarnere.

Webster held his finger over the trigger, and was ready to fire. To his shock and fury, Welsh was too fast for him. Welsh had noticed what he was about to do, and the scientist had ran towards the red button sitting beside the pool, flipped open the plastic cover protecting it, and slammed his hand down atop it. That sent the pool bubbling madly and within seconds the floor was being dropped back into the ocean, the shark along with it.

“Are you fucking _crazy_?” Webster bellowed at Welsh, who still stood there with his hand on the button. “We should have killed it!”

Welsh didn’t say a word, and couldn’t meet Webster’s eyes. Instead, he joined the others who hadn’t even noticed what he’d done, too distracted with Guarnere who Roe was trying to help as best he could.

“Muck, have you rang the emergency line?” Winters asked from beside Roe, who was handing him what he needed from his pack.

“Yeah,” Muck answered shakily. “I radioed over from the line down here.”

“Okay,” Roe said, sounding much calmer than anyone else in the room. “Edward, I need you to hold this shirt right there, real tight. Alright?”

Heffron, who was kneeling in front of him, nodded wildly, face as pale as a ghost. “Y-yeah, yeah, okay.”

“Good,” Roe smiled at him, grabbing his hands and laying them over the shirt over Guarnere’s wound. “Right, I’ve got the belt attached around his leg, that should help for a short while. We need to get him the hell out of here.”

“Helicopters not far out,” Muck shouted from the radio. “They just said they’ll be here within minutes.”

“Alright,” Lipton said, as he and Speirs brought over the spinal board. “Let’s get you out of here, Bill.”

“Sounds fucking good to me.” Guarnere bit out through clenched teeth.

Lipton and Speirs slid the board onto the ground, and joined the others. Roe and Heffron took hold of Guarnere’s legs, Nixon, Winters, Lipton and Speirs grabbed him by the arms and waist, whilst Malarkey kept his head steady, and altogether the group lifted Guarnere as carefully as they could onto the panel. Guarnere groaned through the pain he felt as his leg was stirred, grinding his teeth to try and stifle it.

As he was placed on the board, he was tied up safely with the straps, and no more time was wasted in getting him out of the lab. It took six men to lift him and get him out faster, Roe, Heffron, Winters, Nixon, Speirs and Lipton all worked together to shuffle across the wet, slippery floor, and up the metal staircase. As they reached the top, they carefully manoeuvred him out the door, leaving the rest of the team to sit in the silence, the only sound of Guarnere’s pained moans fading away.

They all glanced around at one another, in complete shock and disbelief over what had just gone down. Malarkey stared at the pool of red on the ground, wanting to wash it away. Luz felt himself shake, grateful to Toye as he wrapped him in his leather jacket. Webster was the one who broke the silence, his eyes fixed on Welsh, who was standing near the front of the lab, gazing out into the ocean on the other side of the window.

“Why did you do it, Harry?”

Welsh didn’t turn, not wanting to meet anyone’s eye. “I had to, Web.”

“No, no you didn’t.” Webster said, voice rising as he threw the gun to the side. “We should have killed that shark, Harry, and you know it!”

“Web,” Liebgott called, trying to calm the younger man down. “Come on, calm down.”

“No!” Webster yelled. “Something is wrong with those sharks, and you know I’m right Harry, you see it too! Did you not just _see_ what it did to Bill?”

“Don’t sharks attack people?” Toye asked.

“Only when they feel threatened, or think we’re a fucking fish.” Webster said irritated, he just wanted Welsh to look at him and admit that something was happening to those sharks, and they had to fix it. “That’s not the point though. That shark should have been knocked out for _hours_ , but it woke up in less than thirty minutes!”

Welsh bit his lip, finally turning around to face the marine biologist. “Maybe the stuff wasn’t strong enough.”

Webster huffed. “You heard Nix, that dart was strong enough to knock out an elephant for over four hours.”

“Maybe… maybe because the shark’s too big it-,”

“Maybe you should start admitting that something’s wrong, Harry!”

“Web!” Liebgott called louder this time, seizing his arm and turning him around to face him. “Alright, that’s enough, come on.” he said, putting his hand on the younger man’s back and leading him away. “Let’s go to the kitchen, I think you need to rest and eat something before you pass out.”

“I’m fine.” Webster protested, but in reality he was feeling tired, and weak, and he just wanted to turn back time and change what had happened minutes before.

“You’re not fine.” Liebgott said seriously, not letting go of him until they reached the door. The Jewish man bid the others farewell for now, and took Webster into his work room.

The rest of the group were left in silence once more. Until Penkala spoke up, questioning Welsh. “Harry, Webster knows those sharks better than anyone, he’s right isn’t he? Something bad has happened to them?”

Welsh didn’t answer.


	5. The Big Flood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There will be death in this chapter... I'm sorry! :(

The kitchen was as quiet as a graveyard as Liebgott and Webster went inside. It would seem eerie even, if it wasn’t for the mess Liebgott had left around the place, making it more like someone’s home kitchen than a work place. Flour was painted on the floor, utensils were strewn across benches, and even the oven doors were left wide open. Webster didn’t comment, but he was pretty sure most chefs were a lot cleaner than this. Liebgott didn’t seem to care though, as he made his way to one of the shelves and picked up some clothes.

"Here, put these on, you’ll catch a cold." Liebgott handed Webster a large jumper, a pair of jeans and some converse. "We're the same shoe size, right?"

The younger man nodded and accepted them with no questions asked, too tired to argue or open his mouth to say anything. So he went behind a shelf to shred his wetsuit, and change into Liebgott's clothes.

The chef made his way to the fridge, deciding they both needed a snack or something more filling, preferably a nice meaty sandwich. Scrounging through the shelves, Liebgott pulled out some pork, butter and whatever sauces he could find, and balancing them all in his arms he went over to the messy kitchen counter, dropping them smack bang in the middle. He cringed at the booming sound it made, looking up at Webster to see if he’d noticed.

Liebgott had to do a double take when he gazed over. He didn’t mean to stare, but boy was it hard not to. The chef could just about make out Webster through the stack of food on the shelves, and he stared at the younger man’s bare back, watching as he lifted the sweater above his head and gracefully let it fall over his pale shoulders, covering him up way too fast in Liebgott’s opinion. He laughed at himself, looking away hurriedly before he was caught staring. It felt like he was back in school again.

“Thanks for the clothes.” Webster addressed him as he came from behind the shelves, throwing his wetsuit onto the nearest chair.

The jumper was snug on him, and the trousers fit like a glove, and for a second Liebgott forgot what he was doing. “Uh… yeah, no problem.”

Webster took a seat on the other side of the counter that Liebgott was using, resting his elbows on it and putting his head in his hands. He rubbed at his temple with his thumbs, feeling a thumping headache coming, the last hour catching up to him. The marine biologist hadn’t stopped thinking about it, his mind on Guarnere, on Welsh, on the sharks, wondering if he could have done anything differently to have prevented the events. It was driving him crazy.

“Hey,” Liebgott pulled him out of his thoughts, catching his gaze. “Eat up.”

Webster frowned down at the sandwich that was put in front of him, like it was about to explode in his face. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

Liebgott sighed, taking his own seat in front of the other man. He can’t say he wasn’t expecting that question. “It’s been a shitty fucking night, Web. I think we can be civil for tonight, right?” was all he said, hoping Webster wouldn’t question him further.

And he didn’t. Webster just gave him a small smile, and picked up one of the sandwiches.

“Thanks, Joe.”

“You’re welcome, Web.”

 

*****  


The lab had been quiet until the doors above the staircase opened, it's loud, rusty hinges squeaking and echoing around the room. The team that had helped Guarnere to the surface had returned, every single one of them looking defeated and knackered, like they'd just sprinted a marathon. It didn't help that they were all soaked to the bones, their clothing stuck to them like a second skin, their hair flattened to their skulls, and as they descended the steps rather rapidly they all left small puddles behind.

Nobody said a word as they rushed to join the rest of the group, who were sitting around the security screens, all except Welsh who was sitting with his head in his hands next to his computer. Nixon patted him on the back as he practically ran by, knowing to leave Welsh well alone when he was in that state, Winters doing the same as he knew his friend just as well. As most of them took a seat by the screens, Lipton and Speirs standing nearby and ordering Toye to switch on the screens again, Luz asked what the others were thinking.

"Is he okay?"

"He's being lifted onto the helicopter," Speirs said, voice firm. "He'll be fine. Toye try and get those cameras working so we can see what’s happening outside."

“Shall I try and speak to the pilot?” Muck asked, already making his way to the radio.

Lipton answered him. “Yes please, Skip. Just so we know he’s on his way safely.”

Heffron sighed frustratingly at the thought of his best friend being whisked away in that stormy, violent, weather. He tugged at his hair, wishing he could have done more. "He lost so much blood."

"He'll be okay, Edward." Roe told him, reaching his hand over to take his. "They'll get him to the hospital as quickly as they can, and they'll fix him up."

Toye shook his head, tapping away on the buttons in front of him, having no luck with the monitors. "It should never have happened in the first place. Those things are fucking dangerous."

"Guarnere should never have gotten so close!" Penkala said, feeling angry at his friend.

"Web warned him," Malarkey mentioned. "He did tell him to stay back."

"We should have listened to Web," Lipton sighed. "He was right, something was wrong with them."

Nixon nodded in agreement along with everyone else. If they'd just taken his advice from the start, or not acted like sharks eating people were a damn joke then maybe they could have prevented it. Nixon thought to himself that maybe he should take Webster's warnings about sharks a little more seriously from now on. That's when he noticed, looking around the lab, he saw no sight of his best friend.

"Guys, where's Web?"

"In the kitchen," Malarkey answered him. "Liebgott took him up there to calm down."

Nixon nodded in reply, wrapping his arms around himself, starting to feel the cold. “Any luck?”

“Fuck all.” Toye growled, ready to punch through the damn televisions. “Signals are down, the storms cut them all off.”

“How about the radio, Skip?” Lipton called over.

“Can just about hear them,” Muck answered, squinting to try and work out what the paramedics in the helicopter were telling him. They were shouting in his ear, the static making it too difficult to get in any words. “I have no idea what they’re saying guys.”

“Fuck.” Speirs cursed, tapping Luz to get him to budge off his seat, and taking his place. He prodded at the buttons angrily. “We’re going to back up.”

As Speirs and Toye worked on the panel, nobody said a word, everyone’s eyes stuck on the screens in front of them just waiting for something to happen. Then, out of the blue, two screens flicked, then another, followed by a few others that blinked on to show static. All the monitors gave out a humming noise and cut off, the screens going blank again before there came a rumble from behind them, Toye and Luz grinned knowing that it was a good sign.

The screens flashed back to life then, every camera above surface appearing on the monitors and showing exactly the same thing, a heavy, ferocious storm, the decks getting battered by the rain and the ocean, waves reaching into the sky, the metal fences being blown back and forth as if made of paper. They all stared, feeling anxious, trying to see beyond the bad weather. And it wasn't until Malarkey pointed it out that they noticed one of the televisions, where they could just about make out the helicopter.

"They haven't left yet!" Toye said, pointing to the monitor.

"Maybe it's too difficult to fly out of this storm." Winters suggested, watching as the helicopter was suddenly tugged down towards the sea, like something was pulling it.

That's when Heffron gave out an audible gasp, his eyes trained on a chord that led from the helicopter, down into the deep. "Bill... Bill was attached to that rope!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Nixon said, sounding unsure of his own words. "They'd have hauled him up by now."

"Guys," Roe practically whispered. "What... What's it doing?"

Welsh snuck up behind the rest of the group, joining them to see what was happening, praying in his mind that things couldn’t get any worse. They all watched on in horror as the helicopter swayed dangerously back and forth by the chord, until it gave a big jerk. Then all of a sudden it was being tugged forward, right towards the camera.

“Do you think…” Penkala barely whispered.

Roe shook his head in disbelief. “It can’t be… there… there’s no way that the sharks…”

"It's heading straight for the camera!" Luz cried.

"No," Speirs corrected him. "It's heading straight for the tower!"

Without any time to prepare for the inevitable, the entire group were knocked off their chairs and feet, when a booming crash sounded from above them. The lab shook violently, like a colossal earthquake had struck, sending computers, tables, everything in sight tumbling to the ground. Rubble fell from the ceilings and walls, electrics blew and sent sparks flying, and cracks appeared and grew along the tiled floor.

The intense tremor had Nixon losing his footing on the slippery tiles, sending him stumbling backwards and straight into the pool. Winters headed for him without a second thought, dust and bits of ceiling beating him as he leant over the pool to pull Nixon out, the vet sputtering and coughing as he tried to swim to the side. Speirs and Lipton came to their aid, helping to get Nixon out and back on ground.

Debris continued to fall for what felt like too long, Toye practically jumping on Luz to stop pieces from hitting the younger man square on the head before he pulled him under the bench, the rest of the team dodged the wreckage and held their arms over their heads, just as the horrifying quake came to a standstill. It stopped suddenly, as if someone had snapped their fingers.

*****  
  
It came as an even bigger surprise for Webster and Liebgott, who were just about to tuck into their grub. Just after Webster had thanked Liebgott for what he’d done for him, what felt like just a ground above them, came a deafening bang, followed by a powerful quake. The two shared a confused glance and didn’t have any time at all to react, as the entire kitchen shook under the force of whatever had happened above ground, sending everything in sight tumbling to the floor. Including Webster and Liebgott.

Liebgott fell straight off his stool as if it had been yanked from under him, he dropped with a painful thump to the ground, as a shelf just about missed him as it crashed to the floor noisily. Webster had jumped off his own stool in alarm, but couldn’t keep himself steady as he tried to get to Liebgott to check if he was alright, his feet wobbled and he tried his best to cling onto the counter. But when the tremor gave off a forceful shake, Webster was sent flying face first to the floor, but not before taking a knock to the head on the edge of the worktop.

“Web!” Liebgott yelled over the colliding shelves, smashing dishes, and falling rubble. “Web! You alright?” he shouted louder. But he got no response.

The chef crawled on his elbows and knees across the floor and kept himself as close as he could to the counter, cursing every time something fell nearby or a piece of debris hit him. He got to the edge of the bench, and froze. Webster was on the ground on his side, covered in dust and dirt, his eyes shut. Not to mention he had a bloody gash across the side of his head.

“Shit!” Liebgott hissed, screwing his plan to crawl his way to the other man, and practically running to him instead. “Web? Hey, Web!”

Liebgott kneeled beside him, shaking him by the shoulder as gently as he could. He could have shouted to the heavens in gratitude as all of a sudden the shaking stopped, and the kitchen became quiet, the only sound of electric wires hissing and spitting, and a few items still tumbling off the shelves.

“Webster?” Liebgott tried again, this time taking the man’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “You better wake the fuck up, Web, or I swear to-,”

“Alright, Liebgott,” Webster mumbled as he blinked his eyes open slowly, groaning at the pain in his head. “You’re bedside manners are terrible.”

Liebgott couldn’t help the short laugh he let out, wanting desperately to hug the other man in relief at hearing his voice. “Fuck, Web, first you almost get eaten by a shark, and now this. You trying to give me a heart attack?”

Webster smiled somewhat, his head hurting way too much to even think about what the older man was saying. Liebgott helped him sit upright, and he sucked in a deep breath at the sudden sharp sting that shot down the back of his head, rubbing at his neck to try and ease it.

“I’ll have to find you something for that,” Liebgott said, pointing at Webster’s head. “Wait here.”

Webster snorted, hovering his fingers above his cut. “I’d rather go take a walk actually.”

“Ha ha, Webster, you’re fucking hilarious.”

“What the hell just happened?” Webster asked minutes later, as Liebgott got down beside him again, and brought a first aid kit along. Luckily that had been hidden away in a cupboard and survived the beating. “Do you think everyone’s okay?”

“No idea, Web.” Liebgott said, pulling out some antiseptic wipes. “Whatever it is, I think we’d better make our way out of here. I’m sure everyone’s fine, they’re further down than us.”

“Joe,” Webster said quietly, cringing as Liebgott dabbed at his wound. “It was an explosion from the surface. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Yeah?” Liebgott shrugged, discarding the wipe and holding a flannel to Webster’s head. He wasn’t exactly a doctor, but it would do for now. “Well, whatever it was, like I said, we just have to get to the surface.” He said, secretly worried about what they’d find. “And get you to a hospital, that bump to the head could have made you stupid.”

Webster glared. “Fuck off, Liebgott.”

Liebgott just grinned.

 *****  
  
“Is everyone alright?”

Back in the crumbling laboratory, Winters lifted his head to scan his surroundings. The place was in complete ruin, the ceiling looked like it was about to cave in, electric wires swung around and sparked dangerously, whilst dust, rubble and broken objects lay scattered on the ground. He took a look at his friends again, all still laying on the floor, either looking around in shock or with their heads still tucked under their arms. Nixon, who he’d held close after pulling him out of the pool, stared at the wrecked ceiling, eyes wide and startled.

“Everyone okay?” he called out again.

“Looks like it.” Speirs answered beside them, helping Lipton sit up. “Alright, Welsh?”

Welsh, who Speirs had noticed was the furthest away, nodded in reply, and looked the most petrified.

“Alright, everybody up,” Speirs said strictly, not wasting any time. “It sounded like the tanks blew up there so there might not be much left, but it’s probably not that safe down here either, we have to get the hell out of here.”

“Do you think it’s safe up there though?” Toye asked nobody in particular, as he stood and helped Luz stand.

Malarkey wiped some dust off his clothes. “Probably not,” he said. “But like Speirs said, we can’t stay down here.”

“Agreed. We’re probably safer on the surface.” Muck approved.

“What about Bill?” Heffron practically whispered as he and Roe got off the ground.

Everyone stood silent, sharing looks of grief with one another, all of them thinking the worst but nobody wanting to admit it out loud. Speirs was about to take the plunge, he wasn’t going to wait around when they could all be in danger.

“Uh guys…” Everyone’s attention turned to Nixon before Speirs could get a word in, the vet looked like he’d just seen a ghost. He raised his arm gradually, and pointed out at the ocean. “Please, tell me someone knows what that is?”

The group all turned slowly, as if too afraid to see what Nixon was seeing. And a cold shiver ran down their spines at what they saw, every single one of them hoping it wasn’t what it appeared to be. Eyes widened, hearts raced and blood ran cold, for in the sea just on the other side of the thick glass, they could make out what was unmistakably a shark swimming straight toward the window. And it was coming fast.

The creature was speeding towards them like a rocket, and it didn’t look like it was anywhere near stopping. The team had frozen to their spots, just watching and waiting for the thing to strike. But as it got closer, they realised, it had something in its jaws.

“Bill?” Heffron let out in a whisper, taking slow steps closer to the glass before Roe reached out to stop him. “No…” he breathed.

No one said another word, too shocked and disbelieving. The shark wasn’t swimming towards them alone, as in its mouth it held the spinal board, Guarnere still strapped into it, his lifeless body being dragged through the water. It was like something out of a movie, like they were in some kind of dream and couldn’t wake up, and it got even worse when the shark swung its head back, throwing Guarnere on the board with so much force he hit the window with a loud smack.

The spinal board struck the glass so hard an enormous crack split it. And it wasn’t going to stay that way, as within seconds the split began to grow. Heffron tried and tried to call Guarnere’s name, but he knew it was useless, they all did, Guarnere was gone.

“Holy shit…” Toye muffled, taking slow steps back and pulling Luz with him. “That glass is fucking breaking.”

As soon as he’d said it, the glass made a noisy, crackling sound, and out popped a massive chunk of the glass, shooting right at them. Lipton yanked Speirs out of harm’s way, the thick, heavy glass landing on the tiles.

“Uh, okay everyone…” Winters began, on instinct he grabbed hold of Nixon’s wrist with one hand and Welsh’s shirt with the other, and started walking them away from the window. “I think it’s time we got out of here.”

“Couldn’t agree more.” Muck whimpered, as another piece of glass flew out at them, Penkala just about missing that one.

 “Let’s go, everybody move!” Speirs ordered, shoving Malarkey forward, and clutching in Lipton’s hand. “Move!”

Everyone scrambled, slipping over the wet tiles, tripping over bits and pieces on the ground, and making for the stairs as if it were a race. But Heffron, he couldn’t leave his best friend behind.

“Edward!” Roe yelled, turning to find the red head still by the computer screen. “Come on!” he shouted in panic, running to him and practically dragging him away. “Heffron, there’s nothing you can do, come on, please! Bill wouldn’t want you to get hurt!”

Heffron sobbed, looking away from his friend behind the glass, and letting the medic take him. It was then that everything took a turn for the worst. As soon as Roe and Heffron caught up with the others, a resounding crunch came from behind them, and everybody glanced back just as the window at the front of the lab gave way. The ocean pushed through the glass, sending it into an explosion, before the water fell forward in a humongous wave straight through the gap.

Winters virtually pushed Nixon towards the door, as Muck, Penkala and Malarkey ran behind them, and Toye helped Luz and Welsh ascend the stairs as the sea just about hit their feet. Unluckily for the four at the back, the waves crashed right into them and flew over their heads like a hand reaching out and dunking them under. Roe, Heffron, Speirs and Lipton all disappeared under the water, as it rose higher and higher.

“Fuck!” Toye yelled, about to run back down the steps before Winters stopped him.

“The door!” Winters shouted over the deafening crashes of the waves. “Help them with the door!”

Toye did what he was told, and joined Nixon, Welsh and Muck who were struggling to open the metal door. Winters took the rest of the group back down the stairs, just as the four who’d been dragged under emerged, gasping frantically for breath. Fortunately for Lipton he’d held tight onto the railing, where he could pull himself up and out of the deep water, and to everyone’s relief Heffron and Roe were near enough to be able to reach out for their hands and haul them out.

“Ron!” Lipton shouted in panic, for Speirs came out of the water further away than the others. “Ron! Swim!”

Lipton kept one hand on the rail as he took a few steps down, extending his other hand towards his husband, who swam with everything he had back towards them. Lipton screamed his name in desperation, that nagging feeling at the back of his head telling him that those sharks were in that water somewhere.

“Come on Speirs!” Malarkey shouted with him.

Speirs made it just before the water engulfed half the stairway, he caught Lipton and Winters’s hands who yanked him out, he hurdled out of the water and just about fell into Lipton’s arms. Lipton held onto him tight as they made for the top of the stairs, the team rushing close behind. They all almost cried in joy when as they got to the top, the door gave a loud click and a noisy wail, and Toye and Muck frantically spun the dial in its middle to completely unlock it.

“The water’s rising fast!” Penkala yelled in panic, just as the sea began circling their legs.

“Hurry!” Heffron squealed, his fear growing.

“We’re fucking trying!” Toye snapped back, as the wheel clipped into place.

The door had unlocked, but as the two attempted to open it, it wasn’t that easy. With the water rising at a rapid pace, it forced the door closed, making it that much harder to swing open. Nixon and Welsh hurriedly joined them again, pulling at the wheel with all their might, and soon Speirs and Winters grabbed on, followed by Lipton and Malarkey trying to get their hands through the gap of the door and shove against it. With all of the men giving it all they had, and the rest keeping an eye on the water, eventually the door gave in and opened up all the way, the team having to push hard against the flow of the sea.

“Everybody out, now!” Winters ordered, putting his back against the metal to keep it from swaying back. “Go!”

Water poured through the open door like a waterfall, jostling the group’s legs as they scrambled out of the lab, half of them almost falling over in their haste to get out of there as fast as they could. As soon as the last person stepped through, Nixon helped Winters tug the door forward, with a slight struggle they had it shut with an echoing slam. Nixon spun the securing wheel around until it clunked back into place, not taking any risks by keeping it unlocked, because quite frankly he didn’t think sharks were that stupid anymore.

“Is everyone alright?” Winters asked, slouching against the wall.

Most nodded in reply, too breathless and in utter shock from what had just happened. Muck slid down the wall and put his head in his hands, as Malarkey took a seat opposite him against the wall, Penkala sitting nearby on the wet floor. Heffron walked a little down the hall, the image of his best friend still replaying in his mind. Roe watched the red head from afar, as he checked on a cut that Welsh had received from some falling debris. Luz didn’t look like himself as he stood in a corner, eyes wide and frightened as Toye held his hand and calmed him with soothing words. Then Nixon, standing beside Winters, turned to him with a lost look in his eyes and moved away to stand alone, just as Lipton and Speirs approached them, Lipton clutching at his husband’s hand like he was about to run away. 

“We have to get the hell out of here.” he said, quiet enough for only them to hear.

“Yeah,” Winters replied. “We have to come up with the safest way out.”

“We don’t know what’s on the surface.” Speirs said. “There could be nothing left up there, we have to be careful.”

“We have to try.” Winters told them. “There’s no other option.”

The other three nodded in agreement, but before they could clear everyone out and get them out of there, the rest of the group had other ideas.

"What the hell happened in there?" Malarkey spoke up, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Yeah," Muck said. "I'm pretty sure if Web was here he'd tell us what that shark just did was beyond god damn normal!"

"You know what," Nixon nodded slowly, strolling back to the laboratory door. "I agree. What the fuck did you guys do to those sharks?" he directed at Lipton and Welsh.

Speirs stepped in front of his husband, and stopped him before he could say a word. "Don’t go putting the blame on them, they didn't do nothing to those damn things."

Nixon ignored him, catching Lipton's eye. "I'm not blaming you, I just... _we_ just want to know what's going on."

Lipton put his hand on Speirs's shoulder, pulling him back beside him. He was grateful that he had his husband to stand up for him, but now wasn't the time, as he was just as confused as everyone else. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I don't know what's going on, I promise you we didn't do anything to those sharks to make them act this way."

Nixon nodded, satisfied with his answer, as were everyone else. They knew Lipton wouldn't lie to them, and if he was in the wrong he'd be the first to admit it. But what they weren't expecting, was for Welsh to speak up.

"It was my fault." He said in an unstable voice.

Everybody moved their gaze to the doctor, who turned his back on them, too afraid to see the looks on their faces when he tells them the truth. He ran a hand through his hair, and bit down on his lip nervously. He felt sick to the stomach.

"What do you mean, Harry?" Lipton asked, dreading the answer.

"I did it." He said, turning to them, eyes teary and hands shaking on their own accord. "It's because of me the sharks are the way they are."

"Wait, woah." Nixon let out a short laugh, waving his hands around in disbelief. There was no way he was telling the truth. "Don't be stupid, Harry. Lip just said you guys didn’t-,"

"Lip has nothing to do with it," Welsh went on, catching the other doctor’s gaze. "I went behind your back and did something... I... I didn't know it would turn out like this... I thought-,"

"What did you do, Harry?" Lipton cut him off, and for the first time since they'd known him, everyone heard anger in his tone. "Tell us."

Welsh took a deep breath, seeing the sad, angry looks on his friend’s faces and wishing he could turn back time and change everything. Heffron was stock still near him, eyes wide and absent, and Welsh put his face in his hands. He couldn't bare to look at them.

"Their brains weren’t large enough to hold the necessary amount of the protein complex,” Welsh began, eyeing the floor. "I used gene therapy to increase their brain mass… I… larger brains meant more protein so… I think as a uh… side effect, the sharks got smarter."

Nobody said a word at Welsh's confession. They stared at him like he'd just admitted to the worst sin possible, not believing that he could do something so ridiculously unsmart. Toye felt his anger boil, but Luz held him back, knowing he'd go off and say something he'd regret. Muck, Penkala and Malarkey shared a look of concern, as did Winters and Nixon. The team didn't have a clue what half the words he'd said meant, but they were pretty positive it wasn't good. And Lipton confirmed their thoughts.

"Harry," he said in shock. "How could you? That's... You broke the law, you…You should have known better!"

"I know!" Welsh almost yelled. He'd known the moment one had escaped. "I just wanted this experiment to work!"

"We don't understand," Speirs said, his eyes boring into Welsh before he turned to his husband. "What exactly happened to those sharks after what he did?"

Lipton sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It’s exactly what Harry described," He explained. "Enlarging their brains with the genes have made them as smart as…well...."

"As smart as a human?" Malarkey finished for him.

Lipton nodded. "Yes, if what they've done so far is anything to go by."

"Why, Harry?" Winters said to his old friend. He too couldn't wrap his head around it, he'd thought the other man was smarter than that. "What made you do it?"

Welsh rubbed at his eyes. "I wanted the experiment to work, I just wanted to help people. I swear I didn't know it would get this bad-,"

"Bad?" Heffron laughed sarcastically. "You call Guarnere being murdered _bad_?"

"Heffron." Speirs warned, knowing losing their temper wasn't going to solve anything.

But Heffron wasn't finished. "I don't care, Guarnere has been fucking _killed_ , we all almost died and God knows what the hell has happened above ground! We might not even get out of here!" he screamed at the top of his voice. "We're going to die and it's _your_ fault!"

"Edward!" Roe shouted at the red head, approaching him and grabbing him by the shoulders. "Hey, that's enough, come on now." he said gently, pushing him away from the others as the younger man hid his face in his hands and began to sob.

The hallway was suddenly silent once more. Nobody said a word, the only sound coming from a crying Heffron and the softly spoken words from the medic. They all took a glance at Welsh whose face was as pale as a ghost, and his eyes red and teary, and the doctor looked away from them to stand alone, Heffron’s words sinking in.

"Right," Speirs just about yelled, gaining everyone's attention. "Enough of this. The more we stand around here like idiots, the less chance we have of getting off this damn floor. It's time to move."

"Where do we go?" Luz asked, thinking of a thousand different scenarios that could be waiting up above.

"We go up," Speirs answered, shedding his jacket and tossing it. "We'll take the stairs down the left hall that leads to the second and third floor.”

“What’s down the hallway to the right?” Winters asked.

“It leads to the shaft,” Malarkey answered. “It’ll be easier and quicker just to take the stairs to the third floor, as Speirs said.”

“Malarkey,” Speirs turned to the red head. “How much time do you think we have before this place caves in?”

Malarkey sighed, shaking his head as he thought about it. “Uh… a few hours tops maybe, depends how much damage is up top, and how quickly the water will leak through the floors. I don’t think the sharks will be helping much.”

“Okay,” Speirs nodded, addressing everyone. “We head for the fourth floor. We can work out what to do from there, we can’t hang around here anymore.”

“What about Web and Liebgott?” Nixon mentioned, he’d been thinking of his friends since they’d escaped the flooded lab. Nobody had any clue what had happened above them. “The kitchens on the next floor, you think they’re alright?”

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Lipton said.

“They’re smart enough to know to get the hell out of there when something goes boom.” Muck commented.

“Maybe we’ll see them on the stairs on our way up.” Penkala said.

“Or they could have made it to the fourth floor already,” Toye added. “Unless something bad happened.”

“Don’t say that.” Luz scoffed, nudging the other man with his elbow. “Now, can we please get the hell out of here before Jaws comes knocking?”

Everyone nodded, forgetting for a second that a few gigantic, man eating sharks were hunting them. They all gathered themselves, getting off the floor, shedding wet, hefty coats and top layers that were weighing them down. And they were seconds from leaving, until they heard something that made their blood run cold.

BANG!

Nixon, who was standing closest to the metal door they’d passed through, jumped forward and away as something crashed heavily into it. The entire wall shook from the force, the noise echoing down the halls. There came another violent thud on the other end of the door, over and over again it repeated like a broken record.

“What the fuck is that?” Toye said, keeping his voice low.

“Do you think it’s them?” Luz asked no one in particular.

“What else could it be?” Muck said. “Please tell me that door was locked properly.”

“I don’t think that’s going to stop them, Skip.” Malarkey told him.

Malarkey was probably right, as the next thing they knew, a bolt flew across the room and clattered against the walls, water jetting out of the gap it had been forced out of. Winters took a step back, and announced to the others. “Boys, we need to make for those stairs. Now.”

But he’d said it too late. Joining the first bolt was another that soared through the air like a bullet, just about missing Penkala who fell back against the wall. Everyone ducked and moved out of the way, covering themselves before another screw shot out, and followed by another, then another, until there was only one left keeping the door frame intact.

Nixon stared at the last bolt with wide eyes. “Fuck.”

The bolt shot out of the last hole like a canon, striking the elevator doors on the other side of the hall, and loosening the lab door frame just enough for the sea to drive its way inside. Nobody had time to take in a breath before the water was bursting through like a massive tidal wave, and filling up the hallway faster than they could run. It was pure panic, as not only did the sea enter the hall, but so did one of the sharks.

“RUN!” Lipton bellowed, pushing Speirs towards the hall to their left.

But not everyone made it to the left hall. The shark was thrown forward with the water, right in between the team, splitting them apart as they ran for their lives. Instead of escaping over to their left, Luz, Toye, Muck and Penkala had no choice but to dive out of the way and sprint towards the hall on the right. Unfortunately for them, the shark chose their group to follow.

“Muck!” Malarkey screamed through the rushing sound of the ocean. “Run you guys!”

“Don, come on!” Nixon yelled, yanking on his sleeve. “Malarkey! We’ll meet them on the fourth floor!”

Malarkey didn’t even argue, as the water rose so fast it was almost past their knees. The team took a quick glance behind them to see their four friends disappear around the corner of the other hallway, the sharks fin reaching out of the water as it trailed behind. Winters stopped at the bottom of the steps as everyone climbed them, making their way as swiftly as they could towards the door that led to the fourth floor, and as Nixon came up last the two shared a worried glance.

“The sharks gone after them.” Nixon said quietly as they followed the rest.

“They’ll be fine,” Winters assured him, not quite believing himself. “They’ll be fine, Nix.”

____________________  
  
“Come on guys, hurry!” Toye ordered the other three, as they shut a door behind them that was meters away from the next one.

Muck lead the way, with Penkala close to his back, as Toye watched out for Luz at the rear and pressed them onward. So much water had come through they could hardly walk without having to awkwardly take giant steps. And as they neared a metal door that led to the shaft, a not so subtle splash was heard from right behind the door they’d just passed through.

“Go, go, go!” Toye roared, gripping onto Luz’s waist to steady him as they reached the entrance.

Muck was first to grip onto the handle of the wheel, as Penkala took the other side and Toye held onto the bottom, and together the three put all their strength into turning the steel lock. Luz stood stock still alongside them, eyes glued to the thin door just a couple or so meters away. It rattled and shook, a deafening bang echoing off the steel in the small hallway, the shark desperate to get a hold of its prey.

“Guys, hurry.” Luz said, voice cracking. “I-it’s coming.”

“We got it!” Penkala cried in absolute delight, as the wheel on the door clicked out of place and spun.

“Let’s go!” Toye demanded, the wheel halting and the door swinging open. “George, come on.”

Muck and Penkala practically flew into the tunnel, Luz stepping through as Toye came in last and locked the door behind him, stopping the flood of water and the shark, for now. But they were all shocked and took two steps back, when they looked up to the top of the long, cylinder room, where the top floor of the building should have been. Like it were floating in the air, there was a large cloud of fire, debris and dirt falling from it like rain.

“What the fuck?” Muck muttered, dodging a small fragment of metal.

“It’s the explosion,” Penkala said. “The boilers were above this tunnel, the helicopter crash must have caused a ripple effect and set the gas chambers on fire.”

“That’s why the explosion was so powerful.” Toye nodded, cursing out loud. “Right, we’ve got two options, we either climb that ladder to get to the fourth floor to meet the others, or we could try and get to the top floor and find a way out.”

“What if the top floors on fire?” Luz questioned, staring wide eyed at the flames above their heads. “You think that would be safe?”

“I vote for the fourth floor.” Muck said, eyeing up the ladder that reached from the ground all the way up to the last floor above. “We need to find the others, if we stick together we’re better off.”

“I agree with Skip,” Penkala nodded. “One floor at a time.”

Toye sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get to the fourth floor.”

And as he said it, a powerful thump against the door behind them quivered the walls and had them all jumping in terror. They watched as the door wobbled after another hit, and water began to pass through a small gap in its side. Toye turned away, not wasting another second, and made for the old, rusty ladder. He took Luz’s hand and took him with him, Muck and Penkala taking the hint and following behind.

“Climb as fast as you fucking can.” He said to Luz, boosting him up a few bars. “Don’t look back.”

But as Luz started to take a step, a piece of debris came hurtling towards him, just about missing the side of his head. Luz gasped and panicked, letting go of the ladder and making his foot slip on the bar, sending him back into Toye who grabbed him in time.

“Fuck!” Toye cursed, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Luz breathed, cursing his damn slick soles. “Never did like these sneakers.”

The others laughed, glad they could finally make light of the whole situation. But of course it didn’t last long, as the crashing got louder, and the shark closer to breaking in.

“Okay,” Toye decided, gripping one of the bars of the ladder and giving it a wiggle. “I’ll go first, alright? If anything falls I can take the hit.”

“What?” Luz squealed in disbelief. “No fucking way! I don’t-,”

“George.” Toye said sternly, already putting his foot on the ladder. “Follow behind me.” He said, now wasn’t the time to argue about it, so he turned to Muck and Penkala. “You two alright at the end?”

“We’ll be good.” Muck answered, Penkala agreeing with a nod. “Just don’t be too slow.”

Toye grinned, beginning his climb and gesturing for Luz to get on. “Let’s go.”

Muck saluted, and climbed on behind Luz. “Maybe the shark will give up, all this bumping his head must be giving him one hell of a headache.”

The group laughed at his joke, but once again, their moment didn’t last long. Penkala had just put his foot down on the bottom of the ladder, ready to follow the rest.

And that’s when the door burst off its hinges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hides*


	6. The Long Climb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this chapter was awful to write... had a little poll and was told to stick to realistic stuff so... character deaths ahead... a little graphic... I'm sorry... :(

“You doing alright?”

“Yeah,” Webster nodded, his head hurting at the sudden movement. “I’ve had worse.”

Liebgott snorted. “Worse than a bang to the head on the edge of a table?”

Webster rolled his eyes, pulling away the makeshift bandage in the shape of a piece of cloth from his head, a blot of blood staining it. “Don’t start.”

“Start what?” Liebgott smirked, as they rounded a corner, and found what they were looking for. “Here, sit down or something.”

Webster glared at the older man, but did just that, taking a seat on a pipe on the wall. Liebgott picked up the phone that was stuck to a panel, pressing the button that led a connection down to the lab on the floor beneath theirs, and hoped for the best. But to no avail, the phone was completely dead.

“Fuck.” Liebgott growled, slamming the phone down. “Not working.”

“The lines dead?” Webster asked.

Liebgott nodded. “That explosion must have blown up the damn tower. Don’t think the elevators are much use now either.”

“What do we do now?” Webster sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. All he really wanted to do was have a damn nap. “Do we go to the lab to see if they’re there?”

“Did the guys even go back down to the lab after taking Guarnere to the helicopter?” Liebgott wondered out loud.

Webster’s eyes widened at the realisation. “Fuck! What if they’re hurt up there?”

Liebgott frowned, taking a seat next to Webster. “No,” he said surely. Thinking about the violent storm that was taking place above the water, and how none of them were daft enough to stay up there. “No, you know what, they all probably came straight back down.”

“So, we go to the lab then?”

“Maybe going up would be a better plan, Web.”

“What if someone’s hurt down there, Lieb?” Webster argued. “We can’t just leave them.”

Liebgott sighed, rubbing his eyes weakly. “Web, they’ll be fine, they have each other. And they’re not going to fucking stay down there if there’s a damn explosion!”

“How do we know that?” Webster bit back.

“I don’t know!” Liebgott almost yelled, feeling irritated to the point that he wanted to get up and go. “Maybe they’re heading up as we speak, and we’re sitting here on our asses wasting time! This building could be burning for all we know!”

Webster snorted. “It’s underwater, dipshit.”

Liebgott glared his way, before jumping up and giving the wall a kick in frustration. “And I thought only smart people went to Harvard.”

Webster turned his head so fast to look at him he felt dizzy. “Don’t be such a fucking asshole, Liebgott!”

“Says you.” Liebgott laughed spitefully, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on his side against the wall. “You’re not exactly the nicest person, _Webster_.”

“To _you_ maybe!” Webster retorted, getting up off the pipe and getting close and personal to the other man. “If you weren’t such a horrible bastard to me all the time, I wouldn’t have to be so nasty back to you!”

Liebgott cracked up, shaking his head at the marine biologist’s dramatics. “Well, maybe you should just stop being an annoying, know-it-all prick.”

“See!” Webster all but yelled. “What the _fuck_ have I ever done to you to make you _hate_ me, Joe?”

Liebgott was stunned into silence. He was expecting more name calling, or at least Webster storming off like he mostly did, but he could see in Webster’s eyes that this time it was serious. He looked hurt, and Liebgott was left speechless.

“I don’t get you,” Webster said quieter this time, not making eye contact with the chef. “Everything I do or say, you have to come up with some kind of… insult. I just…” he looked up into Liebgott’s eyes, and for once he was listening to his words. “Please, Joe. Just… just tell me why you _hate_ me so damn much.”

“Web…” Liebgott began, wanting to tell him he was being ridiculous, that he didn’t mean to say half the stuff he said, and that _fuck_ , Liebgott thought, did Webster really think he _hated_ him? But he couldn’t get the words out, and not only that, he’d just noticed something very odd out of the corner of his eye.

Puckering his brow, and squinting to try and work out whether he was losing it and seeing things, Liebgott took small, slow steps down the hall. Webster threw his arms up in the air in annoyance, wanting to scream at Liebgott for just walking away from him, especially when Liebgott always had a go at him for being the one to run away from his problems.

“Joe!”

Liebgott waved him off, stopping in his steps, which just peeved the younger man further.

“Joe! Don’t ignore this, you-,”

“Shut the fuck up, Web!” Liebgott hissed. “Look!”

Webster followed Liebgott’s gaze and looked to where he was pointing, expecting to see something stupid and utterly pointless, but his eyes widened when he realised just what the other man was pointing out. On the floor there was water, not just a puddle or a splash from a leak somewhere, more like a small river of it flowing down the hall towards them.

“Uh…” Liebgott let out, as he stepped through the sea water to try and figure out where it was coming from. “I’m pretty sure the water is supposed to stay outside the building.”

“Maybe there’s been a leak somewhere.” Webster suggested, as they rounded the corner, where further down the hall was the door leading to the first floor.

Escaping through the cracks in the exit door was the water, slowly, but surely making its way into the second floor hall. Webster was about to take a step further towards the door, before Liebgott stuck out an arm, stopping him in his tracks.

“Don’t.” Liebgott warned. “I don’t think that’s a leak, Web.”

Webster couldn’t agree more, but he had a hunch as to how the seawater was getting through. “The door’s not locked properly, that’s why the water’s getting in. I need to lock it.”

Liebgott couldn’t stop the other man as he pushed his arm out of the way, and made straight for the exit, splashing through the shallow stream underneath their feet. But, as Webster reached it just a few meters ahead, he was stopped dead when a loud, echoing bang came from the other side.

“What the fuck was that?” Liebgott whispered, just as another thump sounded.

Webster listened closely, watching as the door shook under the hits, counting seconds in between and noticing the water begin to creep in more and more with each bang. Liebgott shouted his name, but he didn’t listen, instead he moved towards the sound, wanting to know what it was that was trying to get through that door. And he had a funny feeling it wasn’t their friends.

“Web!” Liebgott repeated, stomping over to him and shaking him out of his stupor. “I said let’s go!”

“It’s a shark.” Webster said sounding shocked, not quite believing his own words.

Liebgott gave him a look of ridicule. “Yeah, course it is. Because the sharks are smart enough to get through doors now.” He snorted. “Not to mention smart enough to get inside the building.”

“Liebgott,” Webster said in all seriousness, staring him in the eyes. “Where do you think all the water’s coming from?”

Liebgott looked from Webster, to the door, and back again. He just laughed, until he had to stop from the serious look Webster was giving him. “There’s no way.” he mumbled.

And before Webster could say anything, a mighty blow hit against the steel door, sending bolts toppling into the river underneath them, and water began to stream in like running taps. Liebgott didn’t want to hang around any longer, he clutched in Webster’s sleeve and yanked.

“Let’s go,” he said, pulling Webster along. “Now!”

As he said this, there came a huge rattle from behind them, followed by a crash, metal against metal. They didn’t need to be told what was going on as they rounded the corner back the way they came, as they heard it, a rushing wave of water heading straight in their direction.

“Third floor!” Was all Liebgott had to say, as they ran for their lives.

But it was too late. Just yards from the entrance to the kitchen, they both turned, as the ocean caught up with them, and took their feet out from under them. The pair were pulled under the water that filled the hallway, and taken with the current. Webster was the first up to take a breath, waving his arms about in panic, before he calmed himself enough to grab onto something. That something ended up being the edge of the door to the kitchen, he gripped the border as tight as he could, pulling himself up to stand. Liebgott was nowhere in sight as his eyes frantically scanned the waves, his only thought that the older man must have been swept further along down the hall.

The water was past his waist already, and coming in fast. He eyed the red button that was just an arm’s reach on the wall, and he clung onto the border of the door, extending his arm out to give it a hard push. A buzzing noise erupted from the ceiling, before a panel slid down from it, the emergency barricade slotting into place and putting a stop to anymore of the water passing through. Webster blessed Toye and Speirs under his breath for coming up with the idea.

What he didn’t expect though, was the visitor that had slipped through onto his side of the barrier. Webster cursed silently as he saw a shark fin glide across the water, near the blockade that had just been put in place, it was just his luck that the creature just happened to be on the wrong side of it. And it was even worse when the shark started swimming his way. Webster’s eyes widened in dread, it was one thing to be swimming with those things out in the open water, but he didn’t exactly think he’d have a chance in a small hallway of all places.

But before Webster could even think of an escape plan, out of nowhere a hand covered his mouth, and an arm draped around his waist, hauling him back in the water and through the doors to the kitchen. Webster panicked for just a second, before he was released and turned to find Liebgott standing before him.

“Jesus Christ, Liebgott!” Webster hissed, shoving the other man crossly. “Give me a damn warning next time!”

“Sure, I’ll just yell your name for the shark to hear too, shall I?” Liebgott snorted.

Webster rolled his eyes, about to say something and probably start another bicker, until Liebgott put up his hand in warning. He pointed his finger at the door with his other hand, just as the kitchen doors gave a wobble, and the water rippled slightly with the movement. Webster tensed, feeling his heart in his throat, as the dark, enormous figure of the shark passed by, the only thing between them being the metal doors.

They both held their breaths, waiting, praying, for the shark to swim on by and not notice that its prey was just mere inches away. They got their wish, as seconds later the animal disappeared out of sight, making its way down the other end of the hall. The two let out a heavy sigh.

“That was fucking close.” Liebgott muttered, looking around the room. “And now we’re trapped in the damn kitchen.”

“Be thankful you’re not shark chow.” Webster said sarcastically, treading cautiously through the water as he made his way to one of the toppled shelves, the metal sill leaning against a wall. “We can’t stand around here anyway, that water will flood this place eventually.”

Liebgott looked at him stupid and almost laughed. “So, what, you thinking of going all Aquaman on that thing and killing it?”

Webster seemed confused. “Who’s Aquaman?”

Liebgott really did laugh that time. “You serious?”

Webster just rolled his eyes again, standing on a nearby table, and hauling himself onto a shelf to take a look at what he could find on top. “As serious as a shark that’s trying to eat us.”

“Fuck.” Liebgott mumbled, making his own way over to the opposite side of the room, eyeing up his poor ovens that were definitely never going to work again. “You do know who the Avengers are though, right?”

It was Webster’s turn to look at the Jewish man stupid. “Of course I know who they are.”

“Thank fuck,” Liebgott grinned, “there’s hope for you yet, Web.”

Webster just rolled his eyes, and continued to nose through the boxes sitting on the shelf. Liebgott took a closer look at the ovens and opened up the bottom one, shaking his head at the sight of the water splashing around inside. He said a silent prayer for the poor things, they’d served him well.

“You’re not going to cry over the death of your ovens are you?” Webster called over.

Liebgott scowled. “At least the ovens don’t eat people.”

Webster snorted, throwing a box to the water in agitation at finding nothing useful. “Sharks don’t eat people…” he paused before he added. “On purpose.”

Liebgott looked at him dully and laughed. “Right, because they _accidentally_ take a chunk out of limbs and shit.”

“Shut up.” Webster said, ending that argument.

Liebgott thankfully didn’t say anything back, and continued to look regretfully at the kitchen appliances and the state of the microwave next to the ovens. Webster shook his head and wondered whether there’d be a funeral next. But his attention was soon side-tracked from the older man, and instead his eye caught movement coming from the door to the kitchen. He did a double take, and he froze as the metal doors seemed to open by themselves, but was in fact being opened by a shark.

Webster clung to the shelf and stood as still as he could. “Joe.” He hissed, watching as the chef fiddled around with utensils, whilst weirdly holding onto a small axe. “Joe!” he said a bit louder.

Liebgott sighed annoyed, turning to the younger man. “What now?”

Webster had no time to give him a warning, as the next thing they knew the gigantic animal was heading right for the chef. Liebgott suddenly got a good idea of why Webster had called his name, as he saw the fin glide through the water towards him, and he cursed loudly before grabbing onto the sides of the bottom oven.

“JOE!”

Webster watched in horror as the gigantic shark sped through the water, heading right for the other man like a bullet. Liebgott had seconds to pull himself up and into the oversized oven, slamming the heavy doors shut. Just as they clicked into place, the creature in the murky water smashed its head against the front of the oven, jerking Liebgott back, his body hitting the rear.

“Shit!” he cried, the shark thumping hard against the door, its sharp, deadly teeth snapping at him. “I’m so fucking dead!”

Meanwhile, Webster stood on the table, eyes roaming the room, looking for something, anything that could save Liebgott from becoming shark dinner. His heart hammered in his chest as the banging grew louder on the oven door, and the sound of cracking glass reached his ears.

“Come on, Webster! Think!” The biologist growled in frustration just as his eyes landed on the lighter.

The lighter was sitting by itself just under him on the shelf bellow, as if waiting to be used. Webster wasted no more time in slipping carefully down the side of the ledge, and snatching up the device, before slowly submerging himself to stand in the water. It was then that he realised, there might be a slight flaw to his plan.

“Liebgott, you have to get out of there!” Webster yelled, just as a thumping sound emitted from inside the oven. “Use the axe!”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

Inside the oven, using the axe to chop his way out was exactly what Liebgott was doing. He swung hard at the metal above his head, just as the enormous shark banged and pounded violently against the glass, minutes away from breaking through. With each bang Liebgott’s heart jumped, his desperation growing. The chef battered the top of the oven with all his strength, one hit after the other, until finally he made a hole big enough to fit his head.

Tossing the axe away, Liebgott reached up and used every inch of strength he had left to wrench the metal, trying to rip it apart to make the hole bigger.

“JOE, HURRY!”

He just about heard Webster scream in fear, over the resounding bashing of the shark’s skull hitting the thick glass.

“Fuck, come on!” Liebgott bellowed, clenching his teeth as his arms tensed against the strain. “YES!”

Liebgott didn’t wait another second once the metal gave way, leaving a gap big enough for him to climb through. He lugged himself up past the sharp edges of the stove, into the top shelf, stuck behind another glass door. Just as he kicked out at it, sending it swinging open, a loud smash came from below, telling him that the animal had finally gotten its head through the oven door.

“Jesus, fuck!” Liebgott cursed, as the shark’s head appeared under him, snapping its jaws in his direction.

“Joe, turn on the gas!” Webster shouted.

 Liebgott looked over through the open door to see the younger man standing by the shelf, water just past his chest, waving a lighter in his hand.

“What?!” Liebgott blared in disbelief. There was no way he was going to do what Liebgott thought he was going to do.

“Do it! Trust me!”

Liebgott had no choice, as the next thing he knew the oven began jolting forcefully, and he looked down to see the open, horrifying mouth of the shark springing up at him through the opening. It was desperate to get to him, like it was on a mission, not caring that the razor-sharp edges of the metal were cutting into its skin.

The chef hurriedly bent over the side of the oven, and with shaking hands turned the dial to ignite the gas. A familiar sound of hissing started, which was enough for Liebgott.

“Come on!” Webster desperately shouted.

Liebgott hastily stood up, and in one swift movement jumped as far as he could, landing safely in the water. As he broke the surface he didn’t stop to look back, swimming at once over to Webster whose eyes were focused on the beast.

“DO IT!” Liebgott roared, through gasps for air.

Webster immediately flicked the top of the lighter and lit it up. “Here goes nothing!” and with a strong swing of the arm, Webster flung the lighter straight towards the open door of the oven, right above the shark’s head.

Liebgott dived under the water, Webster taking his own deep breath and ducking under, before the flame hit its target and let off a humongous explosion. The oven blew with an ear-splitting bang, sending rubble and equipment flying into the air. A massive flame reached like a hand right through the kitchen, skating across the water, and burning everything in its path. Including the shark. The creature had no chance as the fire engulfed its head, burning every bit of its skin right through to the bone, leaving only its tail end intact as it slowly sank to the bottom of the room.

As the flames died down and disappeared, Webster and Liebgott leapt up from the water, gasping for air. Webster clung onto the nearest thing which was a counter, feeling his whole body about to give way from the shock, Liebgott coughed up some seawater he’d swallowed as he spun around in the water, eyes wide as he took in the scene of the wrecked kitchen. The two breathed heavily, hearts pounding against their chests still.

Then Webster looked over at the chef, who in turn gazed back at him, their eyes locking. They both realised then that they’d almost died, Webster had watched as Liebgott was seconds away from getting killed by a damn shark, and Liebgott had the thought that Webster would have been next. And just like that, Liebgott and Webster dragged themselves through the water, came together like a couple of magnets, and smashed their lips together in a passionate, desperate kiss.

Liebgott wrapped his arms around the biologist’s waist, clinging to his jumper, kissing him like it was the last time. Webster gave back just as good as he got, hands scraping through Liebgott’s hair, pulling him as close as physically possible. The only thing that stopped them was the lack of air they both needed.

“Fuck.” Liebgott breathed out as their lips parted, not letting the other man go even in the slightest.  “Jesus Christ, Web.”

Webster grinned, resting his forehead on the chefs. “I thought you said you hated me Joe.”

 “I don’t hate you.” Liebgott said suddenly serious, planting a soft kiss on the other’s lips. “I almost lost you… I… fuck, I don’t hate you, Web. I’m so fucking sorry, I’m sorry if you ever thought that. I could never hate you.”

“I know, Joe,” Webster whispered. “I know.”

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Liebgott whispered back, kissing him desperately. “Fuck.”

Webster hummed as they kissed again, like it would be their last time. Before they could really get into it this time, a loud bang echoed down the hall and the two broke apart. They shared a look of alarm.

“Uh, I think we’d better go find the others and get the hell out of here.” Liebgott said.

Webster nodded, he couldn’t have agreed more.  


*****  
  
Back in the tunnel, Toye, Luz, Penkala and Muck climbed the ladder to the fourth floor, not looking back, ascending as if their lives depended on it. Which they did. When the door they’d entered had crashed open, the shark on their tail had slipped straight in along with the wave of water, and it didn’t take long before it began rising at a steady pace. The creature swam below them, waiting, eager to get to its dinner.

“Everybody alright?” Toye yelled over the deafening sound of the water.

The group shouted back their replies, nobody stopping except for Luz, who couldn’t help but curiously glance down at what was happening beneath them.

“Oh my God.” Luz gasped, eyes as wide as saucers as he stared down into the rising water, the gigantic silhouette of a shark swimming in a circle.

“George!” Toye yelled from above him. “George, come on! Move!”

Luz snapped out of it, gaze turning to Toye who was still shouting at him to get a move on. He did as he was told, taking a quick glance at Muck and Penkala who were right under him on the ladder, their expressions showing just as much fear as what he felt.

As they began climbing again, below them the water rose higher and higher, as if competing in a race. Toye stayed where he was, leaning slightly over the side of the ladder to help Luz up, making sure he was in front of him this time so he could keep an eye on the younger man.

Penkala took another glance down himself, seeing the shark swim round and round in the tight space, until he looked to the second level door that was clammed shut, and that’s when a plan hit him.

“I’ve got an idea to slow the water!” Penkala called up to the others who halted. “Keep going!”

“Alex!” Muck shouted at his best friend, who, instead of climbing up the ladder was starting to climb down. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?”

“Saving your ass!” Penkala yelled back, before he jumped onto the platform where the second level door stood.

“Penk, don’t be so stupid!” Toye joined in on the yelling, watching as Penkala smashed the small glass panel hanging on the wall, to pull out a minute hammer and stuck it in between the sliding closed door. “Christ, Penk the shark is _right_ there!”

Penkala didn’t answer as the sharp side slid through the gap in the door, and gritting his teeth he twisted and turned the hammer to the side to try and separate the doors. The thick metal squealed underneath the pressure, a spray of water leaking through as a tiny gap appeared.

“Penk!” Muck tried calling him again, the water was so close to the other man now, that within less than a minute the three watching were sure Penkala would have no chance. “Penk come on! Leave it!”

“I’m almost…there!” Penkala growled, slipping his fingers between the doors and pulling with all his strength. “If I… do this… the water will slow down and flood into level two!”

Just as he said it the doors slid apart easily, the water from level two slipping into the area they were stuck in. Penkala was pushed back from the force of the waterfall, straight into the filing pool. His friends shouted his name, as he frantically swam for the ladder, yanking himself up it as fast as his legs could take him. As soon as he’d taken his feet out of the water, the shark pounced, aiming right for him. Penkala just about missed the monster’s bite, as it fell back into the water.

“Hurry Alex!” Muck shouted down to him. He was counting every step his friend took, as he drew closer and closer.

Nobody moved, everyone watching Penkala climb the ladder bit by bit. Until their worse fear happened.

“ALEX!”

Muck screamed in horror as Penkala’s foot slipped on the ladder, making him lose his balance and falling straight into the water, making a deafening splash as he disappeared under the waves. Muck, Toye and Luz stared, silently praying, hoping that Penkala would resurface and get the hell out of there. Seconds later Penkala did come back up, his friends shouting his name in desperation as he kicked and flopped his arms about to try and swim back to the wall. But there was no hope, not anymore, not once Luz and Toye realised he was too slow, not once Muck saw the fin of the shark dip under the water.

“Warren!” Penkala wailed, grasping for the ladder as he reached it.

“Don’t give up, Alex! Come on!” Muck shrieked, making the decision there and then to go back down to help.

But it was too late. As Muck lifted his foot to take a step down, a shrilling scream left Penkala’s lips, as he was dragged under the water by an invisible strength. The three on the ladder felt sick to the stomach as the water turned red.

“No!” Muck cried. His eyes never leaving the stained water, as he clung to the steel in absolute fear. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe it.

Toye snapped himself out of it with a silent curse, taking one look at Muck who was sobbing quietly, to Luz who had his head turned away, tucked into his arms that were wrapped around the ladder. The water was reaching them at a slower pace now, but it was still coming their way, and if they didn’t keep moving they’d all be sharing the same fate as their friend.

“Luz, Skip, we gotta go, now!” Toye shouted to them, as demanding as he could to snap them out of their states. “Hey!” he shot at Luz.

Luz looked down at the older man, wide, brown eyes locking with his. Toye nodded once, reaching a hand out to wrap around his ankle. “Come on, Georgie, you can do it.”

Luz sniffled, nodding fast. Toye let out a breath he’d been holding as Luz continued to climb, glad he didn’t have to go up there and force the smaller man to keep going. Now all he had to do was convince Muck to carry on, to not give up.

Toye opened his mouth to yell back down at Muck, but he didn’t get his words out before there came a deafening rumble. The entire structure around them began to shake like an earthquake, bits of stone fell from the walls and the burning ceiling, hitting them every now and then. Luz yelped as a sharp rock hit his shoulder, making him cling to the ladder even tighter. Toye watched in horror as the quaking became so aggressive, the rusty bolts holding the ladder in place started popping out, one by one flying into the water below.

“Shit.” Toye hissed. “Guys, hold on!” he bellowed, wrapping his arms and legs around the metal himself. “Hold on tight!”

Luz and Muck, in utter fright, did as they were told. Seconds later, just as the trembling came to a halt, the ladder gave a jolt and went tumbling backwards. Muck and Luz started to scream, as the steel they held onto squeaked and fell fast. Toye shut his eyes tight, his body jerking as the ladder came to a bumpy stop, holding them all over the water like bait. He heard Luz give a shout, making him tear his eyes open to see if he was alright, but was met with him looking down into the waves with wide, terrified eyes.

“Muck!”

Toye followed his gaze, and his heart was in his throat, as he saw Muck gasp for breath in the deep pool. Muck began kicking and screaming frantically, his mind on the creature that was undoubtedly still lurking somewhere beneath him.

“Luz!” He called over to the frightened man. “Luz, climb up to the other side, quick!”

Luz did just that, with shaking hands and slippery feet, Luz and Toye speedily got onto the other side of the ladder, so that they could lay on their stomach.

“Muck!” Toye tried gaining his friend’s attention. “Muck, hold out your hand. George, try and reach him, you’re closer!”

Luz nodded, grabbing onto one side of the ladder he leaned across the other, stretching as far down as he could to try and reach their struggling friend. Muck whimpered, the water hitting his head like a deafening drum, the cold of it sending shivers down his spine, but he tried to extend his hand as far as he could towards Luz.

“Come on, Skip!” Toye yelled. “Push yourself up!”

“I can’t!” Muck howled, just as the stomach-turning sound of something hitting the water came from behind him. There was no doubting what it was.

“Skip!” Luz panicked, reaching out a hand for his friend as he too noticed the water move. “Muck, no!”

“Luz!” Muck screamed in dread, arms waving hysterically. “Luz! Help… please, George! I don’t want to die!”

“Come on! Reach!” Luz yelled, leaning as far down as he could possibly go, Toye keeping him steady by his legs.

“Jump, Muck, come on!” Toye roared.

Luz felt Muck’s fingertips brush his own, so close but still too far. If he could just lean down a little more he could grab his hand and haul him up. But it was too late. As quick as a flash of lightning, Muck disappeared under the frothing water, nowhere to be seen. Luz held his breath and felt Toye’s hand on his leg tighten around him, waiting, watching. Hoping that Muck had swam away through that open door.

They got their answer, as out of the water the oversized shark leapt up towards the ladder, its humongous jaws wide and threatening. Muck was halfway in its bloody mouth, screaming at the top of his lungs as he held out his hands in the air, grasping for something yet finding nothing. Toye jumped back, as Luz yelled Muck’s name, reaching out to try and grab him.

“Luz! Luz!” Muck shrieked in pain.

“George, no!” Toye shouted in fear, pulling the younger man up and into his arms as he sat back against the wall, holding him against his chest as Luz tried in vain to get himself free to help Muck. “You can’t save him, George! Stop!”

“No!” Luz cried, as he looked down beyond the ladder, meeting Muck’s gaze as the shark sank back down as if in slow motion, closing his jaws down on Muck with a sickening crack.

As the monster disappeared with Muck’s lifeless body in its hold, Luz went rigid in Toye’s arms. He felt his heart beat uncontrollably in his chest, as tears began to fall freely, the sight of Muck’s wide, terrified eyes fixed in his head.

“Muck.” Luz whimpered, as Toye held him close to his chest, kissing the side of his head.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.” Toye whispered, staring down at the bloody water. “You couldn’t have saved him, George. There was nothing we could have done.”

Luz snivelled, clutching at Toye’s arms, the two holding one another close as they watched the water rise.

“They’re… they’re gone.” Luz whispered, closing his eyes taut to try and rid himself of the horror he’d just witnessed. “We’re going to die, Joe, we’re going-,”

“Don’t say that.” Toye growled, hugging him closer. “George, we’re going to be okay. You hear me?” Luz nodded slowly, turning slightly in Toye’s arms to lay his head on his chest. “We’re going to be okay, baby, I promise.”

Even as he said it, Toye knew they had no chance. The water was flooding extremely slow by now, but give it another ten minutes or more and they’d be swimming in it. The shark knew they were there, and it wasn’t going anywhere until it had them in its teeth.

“Joe?” Luz sobbed.

“Yeah, Georgie?”

“I’m glad you’re here with me.”

Toye smiled sadly, rubbing his hand down the younger man’s arm, and kissing his forehead gently. “Me too, I’ll never leave your side again.” He practically whispered, thinking that now was the time that he needed to open up, to tell Luz exactly what he should have told him months ago. Before it was too late. “George, I have to tell you something.”

Luz hummed, sniffling silently. “The last few months of us, you know, sleeping around and shit,” Toye said, moving a hand to play with Luz’s hair. “I know it started off with us just… being friends with benefits and all that but… the last few months…” Toye sighed, his mind muddled. “Fuck.”

“Joe?” Luz whispered, looking up at the security guard.

“What I’m trying to say is,” Toye took a deep breath. “I love you, George. I’ve been in love with you for months now, for me this… this whole sleeping together thing it… I wasn’t just doing it for sex, George, I-.”

“Me too.”

“What?”

Luz smiled at him dejectedly, wishing this had happened before now. “I wasn’t just doing it for the sex either, Joe.” He told him, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I love you too.”

They stared at one another before their smiles broke out, and as Luz’s tears slipped out the two met in a kiss. Toye and Luz held onto each other desperately, their kiss turning fervent as the rushing sound of water grew nearer, their hearts pounding faster from their desire and from fear.

As they pulled apart, still clinging to one another like a lifeline, Luz slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled something out. He handed it over to Toye who puzzlingly took it, seeing that it was a decorative metal cross, just about the size of his palm.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“ _Avó_ gave it to me when I was a kid,” Luz explained with a small smile. “She said it would bring me good luck. We’ve never been a religious family, but, it’s been passed down as a symbol of hope and luck for generations now.”

“George,” Toye whispered, trying to put it back in his hand. “I can’ take this, it was your grandmothers, it’s important to you-,”

“I know,” Luz pushed his hand back, adamant he take it. “But I want you to have it, because you’re important to me to, it’ll keep you safe.”

Toye sighed, holding him close. “And what about you, huh? What’s going to keep you safe?”

“You.” Luz smiled, rubbing away the fallen tears.

Toye chuckled, slipping the cross into his jacket pocket. “Good answer.” He said, leaning down to kiss the other man once more, as the gushing water was dangerously close.

BANG

The couple dove apart, arms still clinging to each other, as another echoing bang sounded from the door a few feet above them on the third level. Then there came another, and yet another, their fear growing as they thought of what might be behind that metal door.

“Joe.” Luz whimpered, clinging to the older man.

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay.” Toye reassured him, his own terror enveloping him. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

As another final clang rang through the hull, the sound of the door opening with a high squeal reached their ears. And Luz and Toye almost cried in utter joy as none other than Liebgott peered over the ledge, closely followed by Webster.

“Luz? Toye?” Webster called in shock.

“Jesus fuck, what are you two doing down there?” Liebgott shouted, noticing a huge, black silhouette swimming round and round in the water. “There’s a fucking shark in there!”

“Oh my God.” Webster gasped, as he saw it too.

“No shit! Get us out!” Toye called back.

“Hold on one second,” Webster said, as Liebgott disappeared out of sight. “We’re going to find something to pull you out!”

As Webster left to help Liebgott, Luz and Toye felt relief wash over them. Their eyes met and they let out a laugh, diving forward to hug each other tight.

“I told you we’d be okay.” Toye said. “We’re going to get out of here, George.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again... sorry!!


	7. The Resting Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! 
> 
> This is basically just a filler catch up kind of chapter. 
> 
> This chapter involves a character with diabetes. My uncle who suffers badly from it helped me out, and read it after I'd written it, just to make sure I didn't get any symptoms and such wrong. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. And thanks for your lovely comments <3

The door to the fourth floor slammed shut and echoed down the hallways, before the dial spun around with a squeal and locked the barrier in place. Winters and Lipton fell back against it with a heavy sigh, sharing a look of relief as the rest of the group in front of them either collapsed on the floor or leaned on the nearest wall, all looking worse for wear.

For once, the deafening sound of water against steel didn’t reach their ears, which had them hoping the rising of the water had been held off somehow, for now. Winters and Lipton instantly stood and slowly walked away from the exit.

“Everyone alright?” Speirs broke the silence, patting Malarkey on the back who sat on the floor, head in his arms. “Nobody hurt?”

The team shook their heads in reply, too worn out to speak a word.

“I think we’ll be safe for a little while,” Lipton said, noticing Welsh standing further away from the group. “We’d better find somewhere to rest, and figure out what we’re going to do next.”

“The water’s already flooded the first floor, and probably half the second by now,” Nixon mumbled, head leant back on the wall. He just wanted to sleep and wake up, and have this entire experience be just a nightmare. “How long will we have until the entire place collapses?”

“Ye have little faith, Nix.” Heffron joked, although there was no smile or a hint of it in his voice.

“We won’t have much time when the water fills in the tunnels, and the more floors it floods the more pressure will be put on the building.” Malarkey answered, sounding tired out. “Like I said earlier, we’ll have a few hours at most, but the way the water’s coming in and the sharks bashing down doors, we might have less.”

“Great,” Nixon snorted, rubbing his head. “Plenty of time to outrun a couple of sharks.”

“Should give us enough time to decide our next move,” Lipton said. “Maybe we should go to the breakrooms and bedrooms, get ten minutes rest?”

“Yeah,” Winters agreed, keeping an eye on Welsh. The scientist hadn’t said one word since they’d entered the hall, standing in the far corner with his head in his hands. “Let’s not waste any more time. I think we all need to sit down for a while, get our heads together.”

“What about the others?” Roe asked worriedly. “We know Toye and them will make their way here, but Web and Liebgott?”

“They’ll come here, I’m sure of it.” Speirs answered, already making his way towards the sleeping quarters. “There’s not really any other option.”

Some of the crew nodded, and quickly got to it. Speirs and Lipton took to the front, as Malarkey followed close behind, before Roe helped Heffron off the floor and caught up. None of them looked up to see Welsh standing still against the wall, and he in return couldn’t look them in the eye after what he’d done. Nixon and Winters took it upon themselves to talk to him.

“Harry?” Winters said softly, putting a hand to the man’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go get a bit of rest before we make our way out of here.”

Welsh surprisingly let out a bitter laugh, running his hands through his hair. “I don’t deserve to get out of here.” He said. “After what I’ve done… I…God, the way they were looking at me… this is… this is all my fault.”

Nixon shared a look with Winters, before turning to the older man. “Harry,” he began in a serious tone, making Welsh look up at him. “Don’t start with all this nonsense about it being your fault, yeah you may feel like it is, and yes you kind of did a shitty thing and went behind our backs to create some crazy monster sharks…”

Winters flinched at the sort of harsh words, but didn’t want to interrupt, and what Nixon was saying wasn’t exactly a lie.

Nixon continued, thinking about his words carefully. “But you didn’t know this would happen, Harry, nobody could have predicted it.”

“Webster could have,” Welsh mumbled, looking down at his hands. “He knew something was wrong, remember.”

“Yes, he did.” Winters said this time, patting his friend’s shoulder for comfort. “But only after it was too late. I agree with Nix, Harry, you couldn’t have known whatsoever that this would happen. You shouldn’t beat yourself up about it.”

Welsh shook his head. “Bill’s dead, he’s _dead_ , all because of what I did to those sharks.”

“Harry-,” Winters began, but before he could get anymore words in, Nixon had had enough.

“Right, that’s it.” he said annoyed, getting down on his knees and swatting at his friend’s leg, looking him straight in the eye. “You listen here, Welsh. You messed up, okay? You messed up and made a stupid, bloody mistake, and this is the consequence of it. Yes, Bill died, he chose to go near that shark when he knew he shouldn’t have, it was not your fault. Yes, your friends are pissed, hell, I’m pissed, but I’ll get over being mad at you, they all will, because they know that this _wasn’t your fault_.”

“All we have to focus on now, is getting out of here.” Winters added. “We need you to be strong, Harry, be ready for whatever comes next.”

“Not moping about around the place.” Nixon said in a joking tone, smirking when he saw a hint of a smile on his friend’s lips. “We can’t afford to be out of it right now, we have to be on the ball.”

“Nix is right,” Winters said, hoping his small smile would make things a little bit better for the other man. “We’ll have no chance if we let our emotions get the best of us.”

Welsh nodded, putting his head in his hands and letting out a big sigh. He tugged at his hair in frustration for a mere second, trying to pull himself together, before he sat upright, sending half a smile at his friends.

“You’re right,” he said, through a croaky voice. “No, you’re right. I have to help everyone get out of here now, that’s what I’ve got to concentrate on.”

“Exactly.” Nixon grinned, patting his knee again. “We need everyone in this together, we’re a team.”

“We are.” Welsh smiled a little larger this time.

“Okay, then.” Winters smiled along with them, holding out his hand to his friend. “Let’s get to the rest area, and figure out what we’re going to do next.”

Nixon and Welsh nodded in agreement, Welsh getting yanked up out of his seat, and immediately heading for the bedrooms. But Nixon, he pushed himself up, but found his head beginning to spin as he felt his hands go numb for a few seconds. It was lucky Winters was right beside him, as he swayed to the side without having no control, and the red head was fast enough to keep him grounded.

“Woah, woah.” Winters let out in shock, as he quickly put his arm around the smaller man. “Nix? You alright?”

Nixon squinted, a sharp pain shooting through his head. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He laughed off. “Just my legs going numb from kneeling.” He lied, knowing exactly what his problem might be.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, positive.” Nixon hummed, not protesting as Winters kept his arm around him, and led him down the hallway.

“Maybe we should get you some water,” Winters said as they approached the quarters. “Or some food, if there’s any in there.”

“I’m fine, Dick, honestly.” Nixon assured him, shivering a little, partially because of the cold but mostly because of his tiny problem. But, they were already running from some hungry, flesh-eating sharks, and racing against a flooding building, so he didn’t exactly want to bring it up. “Could do with a nap though.”

Winters chuckled, taking him through the entrance to the small living room. “I’m sure we can fit that in.”

*****  
“You guys alright?”

Liebgott tugged Toye up from the ground, as Webster helped Luz to stand, also drawing up the fire hose they’d used to get them to safety. Toye and himself didn’t waste another second and quickly shut the door to the tunnel behind them, securing it in place, by swinging the wheel right the way round until it clicked.

“We’re good,” Toye answered with a relieved sigh, looking over to Luz who was clinging to Webster in a hug. “Thanks, man. We thought we were goners.”

“Thank God we found you in time.” Webster said, as Luz shared a smile with him. “What the hell happened earlier? What’s going on?”

Toye and Luz shared a dejected look, not going unnoticed by Webster and Liebgott. So, Toye told them everything. From the shark bursting through the window, the entire lab flooding, and the group being split up, and lastly, they told their friends of Guarnere’s fate after the accident, Muck and Penkala in the tunnel, Toye just about holding it together as he relived the incidents.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Liebgott breathed out, shock evident in his voice. “Bill, Skip and Penk?”

“Yeah,” Toye about whispered, smiling sadly at Luz who came to his side, holding his hand tightly. “There was just… there was nothing we could do. Those sharks… they’re-,”

“Monsters.” Webster finished for him, eyes blank as he stared at the floor. “They’re monsters, and I knew something was wrong, and I didn’t do _anything_.”

Liebgott huffed, and was by the younger man’s side in a flash. “Hey,” he said, pulling Webster into his arms. “Don’t you dare, you hear me? Don’t you fucking start blaming yourself. You tried, Web, you damn tried to tell everyone.”

“I didn’t try hard enough.” Webster whispered, wrapping his arms around the chef’s shoulders and hiding his face. “I should have put my foot down!”

Toye and Luz watched the pair as they spoke quietly to one another, noticing how Liebgott tangled his fingers in Webster’s hair, and rubbed his back with his other hand, and how Webster clung to the other man like a lifeline. The pair shared a knowing smile, not saying a word as the couple in front of them shared a moment. It wasn’t until Webster said his next words that had Toye and Luz changing their minds about keeping quiet.

“I don’t know what happened, Joe, they were fine before, the sharks were fine for months!” Webster said, pulling back and looking Liebgott in the eyes, trying to put the pieces together. “It must be this place, the experimenting, maybe it was me? Maybe I should have looked after them better, or-,”

“It was Harry.” Luz let slip, biting his lip as he realised he’d said it out loud.

Webster and Liebgott looked across at him, wearing the same confused expressions. Toye took a deep breath, and continued what Luz had started.

“Harry did it,” Toye began, as his friends listened. “He told us once we’d escaped the lab. He did something with their brains or what not, which apparently made them go all crazy.”

“Wait,” Webster said, looking suddenly angry. “It was Harry? He experimented on them behind our backs?”

Toye and Luz nodded.

“He… I can’t…” Webster ran his hands through his hair in frustration, scenes of that day running around in his mind. “I knew he was acting strange after Guarnere’s accident, I knew it!”

“You mean when he ejected the pool floor, and let the shark go?” Luz asked, already knowing the answer.

“You saw that too?” Webster questioned, earning another nod from the other man. “He let the shark go so he could use it again, even though he _knew_ it was dangerous.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.” Toye said, not believing his own words. “Not to us at least.”

“He still shouldn’t have gone behind our backs and done something so stupid.” Webster sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “How could he do this?”

“We’re as shocked as you, Web.” Luz told him.

“He must have been desperate, huh?” Liebgott snorted, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. “Just goes to show you can’t trust-,”

Liebgott stopped himself in his tracks, as out of nowhere there was a slight squealing sound coming from down the hall. The four froze, sharing looks of utter concern as the sound echoed around the hallway, and suddenly there was silence.

“Uh,” Toye began, slowly reaching out for Luz’s hand and giving it a pull. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think we’d better get to the next floor. You know, just encase.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Liebgott said, taking a hold of Webster’s hand as they began to follow the other couple.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Luz said, and the four were almost jogging down the opposite passage, heading straight for the door to the next level.

*****  
  
“Alright guys,” Lipton said, as everyone gathered in the small living area, already collapsing onto the comfy sofas. “We’ll get some rest for a short while, and try to figure out our next steps.”

The group nodded, nobody bothering to speak up, as every single one of them were too tired. Malarkey practically draped himself over a chair, Heffron curling into a ball as Roe sat beside him, Welsh snuck in looking sheepish, taking an armchair in the corner, and Winters and Nixon came in last and quietly took a seat away from the others. Speirs gestured for Lipton to follow him into the tiny kitchenette, making sure to speak noiselessly as they checked what was in the cupboards.

“What do you think we should do now?” Speirs asked his husband, as he came across some cereal bars and placed them on the counter.

Lipton shook his head, looking irritated. “I don’t know, Ron. The stairs only go as far as this floor, and the only way to get out from here is the elevator.”

“What about vents? Any tunnels we don’t know about?” Speirs suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Lipton said, finding some chocolate bars and bottles of water, adding them to the pile of stuff. “Best person to ask would be Malarkey. But that could be an option. Even the diving pool.”

“Alright, then.” Speirs nodded, beginning to gather the food they’d found. He was stopped all of a sudden, by Lipton’s hand coming to rest on his. Speirs looked up at him, and saw the concerned look in his husband’s eyes.

“Ron,” he began, pulling the younger man to face him. “If anything happens tonight, if I-,”

“Don’t.” Speirs almost growled, knowing where this conversation was headed. “Don’t you bloody dare, Carwood.” He said sternly, cupping the other’s face in his hands. “Nothing is going to happen to us tonight, alright? We are going to be fine. We’re going to get out of this stupid mess, and go home and sleep until whenever the hell we feel like. You hear?”

Lipton tried to smile, almost letting out a sob at the very thought of something happening to his husband. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?” he whispered, half joking, but half serious as the other man did tend to have a daring personality.

But Speirs just smiled, pulling the other man in closer. “I promise.”

Lipton returned the smile, before leaning in to kiss his husband on the lips.

In the living room, Winters scanned the room to check on the other men, noticing Malarkey was already in dreamland, Welsh was drooping off himself, and Roe was talking quietly to Heffron. He was just about to ask Nixon if he was alright, when Lipton and Speirs came back into the room, carrying an armful of what looked like snacks. They deposited them on the coffee table, telling everyone to help themselves, before joining Winters and Nixon on one of the sofas.

“Chocolate and cereal bars?” Winters joked, picking one up. “Is that how you guys get through the day?”

Lipton chuckled, taking his own cereal bar and handing one to Speirs. “You don’t really think about eating when you’re working around here, it’s easier just to nab one of these from the cupboard.”

“And they’re delicious.” Nixon added, thanking Winters as he handed him some chocolate.

“How are you feeling?” he asked the younger man, noticing he suddenly looked unwell. “You look a bit pale, Nix.”

Nixon waved him off, unwrapping the snack and taking a quick bite. “I’m fine, just great. Tired and shit that’s all.”

Before Winters could say anymore, they all got a great surprise when the doors to the rest area opened, and in strolled Toye, who was closely followed by Luz, and behind them came Webster and Liebgott, all looking like death warmed up. Gloomy faces turned into smiles as everyone in the room saw their friends stroll in, and they were all hugging and sighing in relief in seconds, all except Welsh who didn’t have the heart to join in.

“Thank god you’re alright!” Nixon said as he embraced Webster. “I was so worried.”

“We’re fine,” the shark trainer said,

“Were you two alright after the explosion?” Lipton asked Webster and Liebgott as he patted the Jewish man on his shoulder.

“Yeah, can’t say the same for the kitchen.” Webster mumbled, as Roe hugged him tight, before eyeing up the cut across the younger man’s forehead.

"Is your head alright?" Roe asked him, inspecting it closely.

"Yeah, yeah it's fine." Webster nodded, smiling reassuringly at his friend. "Really, it's fine. Joe bandaged it earlier."

"I'm glad," Roe nodded, looking over at the other three. "How about you guys? Everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Toye answered for them, sharing a look with Luz. They were both thinking about what had happened not long ago, and were waiting for the question they were dreading to answer. "Uh.. yeah, were fine it's uh.." Toye trailed off, not knowing what to say.

But he didn't have to say anything, as Malarkey beat him to it. The engineer had been looking towards the door ever since the four had come through it, as if waiting for someone else to enter, and it was obvious to the others who he was expecting to be there.

"Where... Where's Skip and Penk?" He asked them, voice sounding concerned. He hoped the bad feeling in his gut was nothing. "Did you guys get split up again?"

At Malarkey's questioning, the room seemed to go as silent as a graveyard. Everyone had thought maybe the two were lagging behind like they usually did, typical of Muck and Penkala. But, they weren’t holding out hope when they saw the dejected looks on the others faces, and Malarkey noticed more than the rest.

“What happened?” he said calmly, approaching Toye who was the only one not staring at the ground. “Where are they? Why aren’t they here yet?” he said, voice rising with each word. He didn’t want to believe something bad had happened to his best friends, not them, he was sure they were okay.

“Malark,” Toye began, voice breaking. “I… I’m so sorry, they… they’re gone-,”

“No.” Malarkey cut in, sounding stern. It was a lie, it had to be. “Where are they? What do you mean gone? Are they taking a God damn detour or something?” he almost shouted.

The group didn’t know what to do but stand there in shocked silence, some not being able to look at the expression of pure anguish on Malarkey’s face. Not even Toye knew how to continue, so Liebgott stepped in, approaching the engineer whilst trying to figure out how he was going to say his next words. He hadn’t been there, but he remembered everything the other two had stated.

“Don,” Liebgott said considerately, looking into the other man’s watering eyes. “They went into the tunnel with Toye and Luz, and… the sharks got in they-,”

“Don’t.” Malarkey cut him off, having a clear understanding of what he was going to say next. He didn’t want to hear it. “Please, don’t.” he barely whispered.

Feeling his hands tremble, Malarkey hastily turned away from the team and unsteadily made his way to the sofa furthest away, dropping onto it like a sack of potatoes. He leant forward and put his head in his hands, trying desperately to stop the tears that were trying to escape. His best friends were dead, he’d never see them again, he’d never be able to give them a farewell that they deserved.

Malarkey didn’t even bother trying to hold back his tears at that thought, and felt the first one slide down his cheek and drip onto his leg. The engineer felt numb to the core, and didn’t know what to do with himself, except cry and mourn the two closest friends he’d ever had that he’d called his brothers.

As Malarkey sat in one corner, Heffron taking it upon himself to put a comforting arm around him, knowing exactly what he was going through, Welsh was still hiding in his own corner, watching the entire thing happen. Earlier, when they’d lost Guarnere, had made him feel so terribly guilty, and his friends hadn’t been able to look at him which was worse than being shouted at. But now, they’d lost two more of their brothers, and it made Welsh feel sick to the stomach. Whilst gazing over at Malarkey, breaking down soundlessly, he felt the impending weight of guilt hit him even harder.

And looking up, he caught Webster’s gaze. The younger man stared at him blankly, Welsh couldn’t read his expression at all, but he knew on the inside what Webster was thinking. He waited for the imminent row from the shark expert, ready for whatever he had to throw at him, knowing he deserved it. But it didn’t come. Webster just looked away from him, took a confused Liebgott’s hand in his, and made his way over to a quiet corner to sit down.

Welsh felt even worse. He anticipated Webster, and even the rest, to have a go at him, shout at him, remind him about what he’s done, he could have handled that, but he couldn’t handle the silence. None of them could even look his way at that moment, and they all sat back in their seats, except for Winters.

“Harry?” he approached him, talking quietly. “You alright?” he knew it was a silly question, but if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t quite know what else to say.

Welsh just nodded, not knowing what to say himself. He just wanted to be alone. “I’m fine, Dick.” He said hoarsely. “I just… just want to be on my own.”

Winters nodded back in understanding. “Okay, Harry. We’re here if you need to talk.”

Welsh hummed, sitting back down in his dark corner, shutting his eyes and wishing that he could turn back time. Winters watched him sadly, he couldn’t imagine how his friend was feeling by this time, and all he could do was be there for him when he needed him.

“Dick?”

Winters turned to see Nixon, Lipton and Speirs standing before him, and they pulled him off to the side, leaving the others to rest for a while.

“We were just talking,” Speirs began. “We don’t want to ask Malarkey about this right now, so we’re going with our two options we could look at to get us out of here.”

“What are they?” Winters asked.

“The first is the diving pool,” Lipton answered, not exactly liking the option, not that either of them were safe. “The pool leads directly into the sea, comes out into one of the enclosures above.”

“Sounds harmless.” Nixon said sarcastically. “What’s the other one?”

“The hub, as we call it.” Speirs answered this time. “It’s a small tunnel, or room that leads into the main enclosure.”

“Great,” Nixon sighed, leaning back against the wall to hold himself up. “So, both our options include swimming with the sharks.”

“Unfortunately,” Lipton nodded slowly. “I don’t think any decision we take doesn’t include being in the water. We’re just hoping the sharks aren’t around when we do attempt it.”

“Well,” Winters added. “It’s either that, or we’re stuck down here. Our only chance of surviving is swimming out of here, so we have to do it.”

“Yeah,” Lipton agreed, frowning at the mere thought of what they’d have to do. “We’ll start with the diving pool, see how that goes.”

“Okay, cool.” Nixon huffed, pushing himself not so gracefully off the wall. He put a hand to his head, and furrowed his brows as a shot of pain struck his temple. “So, I’m going to go lay down for a minute. Don’t mind me.”

The other three shared a worried look as Nixon suddenly walked away, going through one of the doors to the bedrooms without another word.

“He okay?” Speirs asked what they were all thinking.

“I’ll check on him.” Winters said, gesturing to the other two to take a seat. “Go have a breather, let the others know what the plan is, and we’ll get started once everyone’s ready and had a bit of a time out.”

Speirs nodded. The more he moved around the more drained he got, so resting wasn’t such a bad proposal. “Don’t forget to take a break yourself.” He said, as Lipton led him to the nearest sofa.

Winters took a look around the room. Malarkey, thankfully, had fallen to sleep next to Heffron, who was sitting close to Roe, the two once again conversing quietly. Toye sat silently across from them, combing his fingers through Luz’s hair whose head was resting in his lap, the other man sound asleep. Webster and Liebgott were in a corner on a cosy looking beanbag, the marine biologist snuggled tightly in the chef’s arms. Liebgott ran a hand soothingly down Webster’s back, planting a kiss atop his head, that had Winters smiling a little to himself.

He noticed Speirs soundlessly make his way to Roe first, as Lipton approached Toye, probably telling them of their idea to get out of the dangerous territory. He turned back around to face Welsh, just to check up on him before going in to see Nixon, and his heart went out to his friend who he’d never seen so helpless. The scientist was tucked away in the dark corner, pulling himself into a tight ball, as if trying to make himself as invisible as he could. Welsh stared off into space, showing no emotions, no sign that he was aware of his surroundings at that time.

Winters smiled sadly to himself, wanting to go over to the other man to help, but knew Welsh needed to be alone. He’d pull through, he was a strong man, and Winters could tell that the group would forgive him one day. That’s all Welsh needed to get back on his feet again. So, with one more look around the room, Winters made his way to the door that Nixon had vanished behind, making sure to stay quiet as not to disturb the sleeping men.

"Nix?"

Winters knocked gently on the door to the bedroom, leaning in closely to hear the other man. When he didn't get a reply, he gave another louder knock, and leisurely opened the door and stepped through, glancing inside first.

"Nix?" He called again, gaze instantly landing on said man. Nixon was curled up on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, arms wrapped around himself. "Hey, are you okay?"

Winters quietly shut the door behind him, taking small steps towards the vet, who hadn't budged since he'd entered. He noticed a couple of chocolate wrappers on the floor, and Nixon’s trainers chucked without a care nearby, as well as his soaked jumper. As he came closer, he realised something wasn't right.

“Nix?” he said once more, before leaning over the younger man, who now hummed in answer. What Winters then saw was that his instincts just now were right. “Oh God, Nix!”

Being careful, Winters sat down on the bed beside him, gently putting a hand on his arm. Nixon was shaking, not just a little, but a lot, like he were laying on a bed of ice. Not only that, but his skin looked so pale, and it was covered in sweat. Winters rubbed a hand up and down the other man’s arm comfortingly, using his other hand to place on Nixon’s forehead. He was thankfully not boiling up.

“Nix, what’s wrong?” he asked, knowing it was a silly question, when there was someone a lot more qualified than him sitting just outside the room. “I’m going to call Roe, okay?” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”

“N-no, don’t.” Nixon grumbled, putting a hand to his head. He felt like someone was hammering away at his skull. “It’s f-fine. I just need… maybe some more chocolate or something.”

“What?” Winters frowned, pretty sure candy wasn’t going to solve the issue. “No, Nix, I’m getting Roe, you’re not well!”

“Don’t make a fuss!” Nixon groaned, turning slightly onto his back to face the red head, feeling guilty at the look of complete distress on the other’s face. “It’s okay… I’ll be fine with some candy in me… don’t make more problems for everyone, Dick.”

“What do you mean more problems, Nix?” Winters sighed, noticing Nixon trembling as he put a cold hand to the brunette’s forehead. “You’re as sick as a dog, for Pete’s sake!”

Nixon sighed at the cool touch, closing his eyes to try and steady himself. “It’s alright,” he began. “This happens sometimes, it’s my own fault.”

Winters was confused now, eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think about what Nixon was going on about. “What do you mean it happens sometimes?”

Nixon opened his eyes slowly, meeting Winters’s gaze. With the way he was feeling, he couldn’t exactly keep it to himself. Besides, Roe would murder him if he didn’t say anything.

“I’ve got diabetes.” He admitted to the older man. “I’ve just got low blood sugar, that’s all.”

Winters’s eyes widened at Nixon’s reason. He wasn’t expecting that, but really, he didn’t know what he was expecting. From what he knew about the illness after his second cousin suffered from it, it could get serious if not taken care of, and by the looks of Nixon, he’d say he wasn’t doing too good.

“Nix,” Winters said worryingly, automatically taking a hold of the other’s hand. “How bad is it? Have you been this sick with it before? Don’t you have medicine? What-,”

“Woah, woah.” Nixon chuckled, struggling to push himself up against the headboard. Winters was on it quicker than a flash of lightning, up off the bed and putting pillows behind Nixon as he leaned back. “Thanks Dick,” he smiled gratefully. “I’ve been through this before, it’s just… sometimes it gets bad when I haven’t eaten and some other shit.”

Winters felt his blood run cold. “What… I thought… aren’t you supposed to have medicine with you at all times?”

Nixon nodded slowly, biting his bottom lip hard. He felt another pang of pain in his forehead, and groaned. “Fuck sake.” He mumbled.

“Nix!” Winters tried to catch his attention again, trying to get as much information as he could so that he could help. He was seconds away from running out and getting the medic, if it wasn’t for Nixon’s plea that he don’t. “Tell me where your medicine is, I can go get it for you.”

“No!” Nixon almost yelled in reply, huffing at how stupid he was for not looking after himself. And now he was paying the price. “Look, Dick, I’ve had some chocolate, I’ll get some rest, I’ll be fine.”

Winters frowned once again, taking note of the brunette’s shaking hands, his sweaty brow and drooping eyes and made a decision. “I’m sorry, Nix. I think you need help, I can’t do nothing.”

Nixon didn’t have time to reply, before Winters was up and walking towards the door. “Dick!” he called after him, knowing precisely what he was about to do. He didn’t even have time to take another breath, before Winters was back in the room, closely followed by Roe, Speirs and Lipton.

“Oh great,” Nixon snorted. “You brought the cavalry.”

“I’m sorry, Nix.” Winters repeated his previous words. “We need to make sure you’re okay.”

Nixon was about to say it’s alright, as he could tell just how worried the other man was from his facial expression, but he didn’t get the chance before the Doc was on him like a bull charging.

“What the hell were you thinking, Lewis?” Roe said as he sat down beside the patient, picking up his arm by his wrist to take his pulse. “How many times do I have to tell you to look after yourself, hm?”

“Sorry, Doc.” Nixon sighed quietly, staring down the medic. He tried not to look at Speirs and Lipton by the door, who were smiling knowingly at the medic, who everyone knew had the tendency to turn into the scariest of beings when his friends were sick. “Look, I took my insulin earlier, I ate, I slept, what more can I do?”

“How about not drink alcohol for starters,” Roe began, cutting Nixon off before he could start. “And how much did you eat? Probably next to nothing. And you’ve hardly slept with the party that went on, and your stress levels are most likely through the roof! It’s no wonder your blood sugars are so low!”

“Doc-,”

“Don’t you ‘Doc’ me!” Roe interjected, setting his arm down and frowning. “Your heart rate is too fast, where’s your glucose tablets? And your kit, so I can check your blood sugars?”

“I’m fine, Eugene!” Nixon tried to argue. “I’ll have some more chocolate, I’ll be better in no time.”

“Not the way you’re looking,” Roe said, earning a scoff from the veterinarian. “Everyone’s eaten the food. Where are they, Nix?” he asked again, getting up ready to grab them somewhere in Nixon’s room.

“Are they in the kitchen?” Lipton suggested, as that’s where he sometimes left them. “I can go get it?”

The group in the room waited for Nixon’s answer, all ready to help out with what they could. And Nixon felt even crappier that they were so ready to assist. With a heavy sigh, Nixon ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair, and told them.

“They’re in your office, Doc.”

Three of the four men deflated, knowing what that meant. Winters, well, he had no clue where the medic’s office was. “Is that a bad thing?” he asked them, judging by their reaction, he was on to something.

“It’s a little bad, yes.” Roe answered him, already thinking up a plan in his mind.

“Why?” Winters dared to ask.

Nixon sighed once more, and said: “Because Doc’s office is on the third floor.”

“Oh.” Winters said simply, now understanding the concern in the other’s faces.

“Yep,” Nixon shrugged, already giving up and rolling onto his side on the bed. “So, if you guys don’t mind, I’m just going to have a nap.”

Speirs was about to make a comment, until Roe raised his hand, stopping him from speaking. The paramedic gestured the three towards the door, and quietly they all crept through it and back into the main living space. By now, everyone was either outers or close to falling into dreamland.

Roe spoke as softly as he could, as the small group leaned in closer. “Nix will get really sick if we don’t get his pills and kit, he’s had a bad attack like this once before, and passed out.”

“That was when we first started, right?” Lipton recalled, when he’d first found out the younger man suffered from diabetes.

“Yes,” Roe nodded. “It’s not a good idea for him to carry on without getting treated, especially not if we’re going to swim, he won’t have the strength. The chocolate he’s had will help a little, but it’s not enough.”

“What’ll happen if he doesn’t get his treatment?” Winters asked, dreading the answer.

Roe looked at him with a deep frown, imagining the worst. “Let’s just say he’d need a hospital.”

Winters nodded slowly, observing Lipton who looked as afraid as he was, and to Speirs who was deep in thought. He didn’t even have to think about it before he was sharing his idea.

“I’ll go get his medicine.” He said certainly. “Tell me where to go and I’ll get it.”

“No way,” Speirs said seriously. “You don’t know the place as well as me, and Nix needs someone with him, I’ll go.”

“Ron, I-,”

“No, Winters.” Speirs cut in, voice stern. “I’m going and that’s the end of it.”

Lipton looked at his husband, who was obviously avoiding his gaze. “Then I’m coming too.”

“No!” Speirs did look at him then. If he was going to go, he’d go alone, he would be much faster if he knew Lipton was here safe. “You’re staying, Carwood. You’re safer here.”

“Are you kidding me?” Lipton practically growled in return. He noticed Roe and Winters standing there trying to not look out of place, so he grabbed a hold of Speirs’s arm. “Excuse us, boys.”

Winters and Roe nodded awkwardly, as Lipton dragged Speirs a few feet away. The younger of the two pulled his arm away, and began to argue, before Lipton could get his words in first.

“Don’t start with me, Carwood.” Speirs said, trying not to raise his voice. “I’ll be fine on my own, you can stay here and watch the group, and I’ll be back in minutes.”

“It’s not that simple, Ron, and you know it.” Lipton quickly voiced his opinion, leaning in closer as he noticed some of the men stirring in their sleep. “There’s damn sharks down there! The waters are rising, and who knows what other obstacles you’ll come across! I am _not_ letting you go down there alone!”

“I don’t want you to get hurt, Car!” Speirs said. And he’d never looked so terrified and nervous as Lipton saw him in that moment.

Lipton sighed softly, stepping closer and taking the policeman’s hand in his, bringing it to his lips to kiss the knuckles. “How do you think I feel, Ron? I don’t want you getting hurt either.” He said, trying to get his point across. “How can I sit up here knowing you’re down there all alone, scared that something could happen to you? I’m not doing that, Ron. I’m coming with you, I’m going to watch over you, and that’s that.”

Speirs didn’t like it, he didn’t like it one bit. But, he had to admit, Lipton was right. It would be terrifying for his husband to sit up in the living room waiting for him, as it would be for him to go alone down into the flooding third floor, and not know what’s going to happen at every turn. So, feeling defeated, Speirs just nodded, knowing Lipton would get that he was giving in to his wish.

“Thank you.” Was all Lipton said in reply, smiling softly at his husband, before he leaned over to plant a kiss on his forehead. “So much for not doing anything stupid, huh?”

Speirs just smiled at his partner, shaking his head at the madness of it all.

“Everything okay?” Winters asked the couple as they returned, seeing that Speirs didn’t look so confident, which only meant Lipton had gotten his way. “You’re both going?”

“Yes,” Lipton said, leaving it at that. “Now, where exactly did Nix leave his things?”

Five minutes later, the entire group were in the know.

“You’re doing _what_?” Luz almost yelled.

“Tell me you’re kidding?” Liebgott added in, looking as dumbfounded.

“You’re aware there’s monster sharks down there, right?” Toye said as an addition.

“Guys, we have to go.” Lipton said to the team, who were all pretty much wide awake by this point. “It’s for Nix, he’s not doing too good.”

This caught them off guard, and they all went silent.

“What do you mean?” Webster spoke up, looking as worried as the rest of them. “Is he alright? What’s going on?”

“It’s his diabetes,” Roe said this time. The others clearly understood as they nodded, and let the medic continue. “He’s resting in his room for the minute, but his medication is in my office. Nix will only get worse if we don’t go get it.”

“Which is why Lip and I are going down there.” Speirs began. “We need you all to get prepared for when we get back, because when we do, we’re heading out. You’ve been told the plan for what we’re going to do next, so get some rest.”

“How can we rest when you’re both about to go on a suicide mission.” Luz snorted, not looking too happy as he sat back against Toye, and pouted.

“We’ll be fine, Luz.” Lipton said reassuringly. “We’ll head straight for the office, and come right back.”

“We’ll come with you!” Malarkey said, wanting to do something, anything to help get everyone out of there. He didn’t want anymore of his friends getting killed.

“Yeah,” Heffron agreed with the other red head. “We’ll come too.”

“No,” Speirs said sternly. They sat back and listened instantly. “We don’t want anyone else risking their lives, and it’ll be quicker with just the two of us.”

Toye nodded in agreement. “He’s right, with a load of us we’ll all just get in the way.”

“Well,” Liebgott sighed, leaning back against the sofa, and secretly quite glad he didn’t have to take on anymore of those sharks. “Good luck, guys. And don’t get hurt.”

“We’ll try.” Speirs answered sarcastically. He then decided they were kind of wasting time standing around, so he left them to collect a few things his husband and himself would be needing. Mostly some sharp objects.

“Oh, and uh, don’t tell Nix just yet.” Lipton put in as an afterthought. “He doesn’t know were actually doing this, so…”

Heffron smiled a little. “So Nix will just kill you both when you get back.”

“Exactly.” Lipton chuckled, leaving them be as he went to help Speirs.

“I’ll tell him once they’ve left.” Winters said. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Webster smiled knowingly, and shared it with Liebgott who had a smirk of his own. “I’m sure he’d love that.”

Winters could feel himself blush from the looks he was getting, he knew what they were teasing him about, but ignored it. Instead, he quickly got away from the group, and went to help Lipton and Speirs who were fussing with some stuff by the kitchen.

“Do you guys think this is a good idea?” Toye asked the remainder of the gang.

“No,” Webster sighed. “But it’s for Nix.”

“You know how ill Nix can get,” Luz said softly, thinking back to the time Nixon almost passed out on them because he was as stubborn as a mule, and kept saying he was fine. “If he doesn’t get his meds, he might not make it out of here.”

“Exactly.” Roe said, as he sat back down next to Heffron, and shared a warm smile with Malarkey. “Speirs and Lipton are smart, they’ll be fine down there. And like they said, as soon as Nix has his medicine, we’ll get the hell out of here.”

“Let’s just hope they don’t encounter _three_ sharks.” Malarkey said quietly.

“Two.” Liebgott said coolly, with a shrug.

The others all turned to him in confusion, as they were pretty sure there were three sharks that had been experimented on, unless their maths was off a bit.

“Two?” Heffron repeated.

“Yeah,” Liebgott shrugged again like it was no big deal. “Web blew one up earlier.”

There was a dramatic silence all around the room for what felt like too long, and Webster felt all eyes on him, making him want to sink into the floor. Even Winters, Lipton and Speirs had heard, and had stopped what they were doing.

“Excuse me,” Luz broke the silence, leaning forward in his seat. “What do you mean, _blew_ one up?”

“When we were trying to get to this floor,” Liebgott explained, like he was telling the weather, and not some story about explosions and deadly sea monsters. “Web blew up the oven with the shark inside, so, it burnt to a crisp. One down, two to go.”

One more time, silence filled the room. Only to be disturbed by Luz again.

“You couldn’t have told us this _sooner_?”

Liebgott hummed. “You didn’t ask.”

“Sorry,” Webster put in. “The whole thing shocked us, I guess it just didn’t cross our minds to say anything.”

“Well,” Lipton started, not exactly knowing what to say. “I guess uh… well done, Web. That explains the rumble earlier.”

“Yeah,” Toye laughed. “Shark slayer.”

“You feel okay though, right?” Heffron asked, putting on a serious face. “I mean, killing a shark must have been hard for ya.”

The team laughed, even getting one out of Malarkey, who no doubt needed it. Webster just rolled his eyes at them.

“Yes, I’m fine Babe, thanks for asking.”

“Alright,” Speirs interrupted the moment, as he slung a waterproof backpack over his shoulder, and picked up a handgun from the countertop. “Enough wasting time, we’ve got to go.”

Nobody questioned where on earth he’d gotten the gun, he was a cop, plus he had a thing for pulling weird objects out of nowhere most days. Everyone in the room got on their feet, including Welsh who’d sat there silently the whole time, and made their way to the entrance of the room, stepping through one by one to walk over to the door that led down into the floor below. Lipton and Speirs went up front, and together unlocked the metal door.

“Okay,” Lipton sighed heavily, looking down into the dimly lit downward staircase. “Ready?”

Speirs nodded, walking past Lipton to go first. “Let’s go.”

As the two carefully and slowly crept down the staircase, the others watched anxiously, feeling their own heartbeats speeding up.

“Be careful.” Luz tried to whisper.

“Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!” Toye added.

“That goes for you, Speirs.” Liebgott said, earning a laugh from the others.

“Shut up and shut the door.” Speirs called back up to them, and didn’t look back.

Lipton gave Winters a nod, who returned the gesture, before closing the door in place, the click from the lock echoing off the walls.

“So,” Heffron cut through the silence. “Now we wait.”

Winters nodded. “Now we wait.”

The team went back into the resting area, none of them saying a word. As Winters shut the entrance door behind him, too distracted by thoughts of what Lipton and Speirs would encounter below, he failed to notice the person standing in the corner of the hallway, silently waiting for them to leave.

Welsh soundlessly came out of the shadowed corner, eyes on the door that led to the third floor. He took a deep breath, and walked towards it, hand on the handle. Minutes later he was on the other side, shutting the thick, metal door behind him, staring down the darkened staircase. Slowly, he descended the steps. 


End file.
